Art Scott Fotografie

In Need of a Really Good P.I.M. (Personal Infomation Manager)

2012-02-10T10:03:00.000-08:00

Looking for a bit help from my collection of really diverse friends ...
I used to run my life off the standard DayPlanner / Day runner and I would loose 2 or 3 a year...quite costly....then I met Palm and wow, my Palm TX with the add on keyboard was fantastic...it up dated the calendar on my destop or laptop so I always had back up calendars ... but alas my great little Palm will not work with Win 7 ... I have tried all sorts of hacks and stuff and it still does not work properly ...sooo where I need your help ...

Can any of you recommend a really great PIM (Personal Information Manager) that can be run say on a tablet and then update my desktop / laptop calendars ... I have found some that are portable (actually run off a usb thumb drive...not viable ...i loose those easier than the paper day planners ...

PLEASE PUT YOU SUGGESTIONS IN THE COMMENTS SECTION BELOW

THANX IN ADVANCE ...

and if you're wondering...yes my Palm TX is still running great and it will be going to ebay with all accessories shortly to help fund a Windows 7-9" tablet to use as a Photo Portfolio and PIM only.

Blessings to all

CRAZY MIND BLOWING FEBRUARY SPECIAL MINI SESSIONS FOR $25

2012-01-31T12:50:00.000-08:00

February Special...
This is your coupon: Feb Special cut and paste to your word processor (MS Word, etc etc) to print and bring along...only accepting Cash for this special. unfortunately i really do need a printed copy of this coupon for the accountant....they get real mad otherwise and so does the IRS ... ...

Mini sessions $25 (upto 45minutes session price includes tax): includes either 2- 8x10's or 1- 8x10 and 2- 5x7 or 1-16x20 ... your choice.

Will shoot in your home, office or outdoor location of your choice in the Wichita Ks area...

Call 316-250-8761 to make appointment.

PayPal Really Read the Terms of Service before asking to be PAID by the GIFT OPTION

2012-01-31T11:37:00.000-08:00

this is what Happened on a Photo forum I belong to...
Person is selling a lens for $xxx to be paid by PAYPAL GIFT. This is a huge infraction of the PayPal TOS and can cause the seller and the buyer to PERMANENTLY lose their PayPal Privileges ....

Below is my post on the forum in to the seller the comment is with his post quoted on the forum but not here.....so my reply to the sellers for sale post is as follows ...

This is just for educational purposes as I would really hate to see anyone permanently lose the ability to use PayPal ... ... ... then again is quite a mystery to me why DGRIN allows anyone to even post an offer this way ... it should be in the flea market TOS that such things will cause your post to be deleted without warning ...

If shipping is included why not the 3% paypal fee???

You do realize that the single bolded line above is going against 2 items of the PayPal terms of service...

1st offense is the asking to be paid as a gift...the gifting is solely for that purpose..sending a gift to someone, also asking to be PAID for Merchandise using the gift option can in fact cause YOU, the seller, and the buyer to loose your PayPal privileges PERMANENTLY and the other reason it is wrong is that if the lens is damaged the buyer has absolutely no recourse.

2nd Offense is the asking for 3% more to use PayPal PROPERLY...It is NOT ok to ask to have added fees for this...IT IS HOWEVER PERFECTLY alright to just add the cost in...So if you would raise your price to $927 OR $930 that would be perfectly acceptable with the PayPal TOS...

Thoughts on Flip or Twist Lock Tripods

2012-01-27T20:20:00.000-08:00

On almost every forum I belong to I praise the almighty tripod...the true image stabilizer.
Tripods were stabilizing cameras and lenses long before the 1st stabilizer was a gleam in the inventors eye....but that is not the reason for to nites post... this post is about flip locks or twist locks..both work and work extremely well.

So why should you choose one locking mechanism over the other? That is truly a personal choice. I started out with the quick lock, flip lock, and after years of blood blisters in the web between the thumb and 1st finger I went to the twist lock and never looked back...also i found my wildlife kill average went way up....those flip locks are noisy and I worked to get mine to close quietly...but deer and other wildlife have fantastic hearing. So now I can be setting up my tripod and have wildlife looking at me and not get spooked by that ever not so subtle snap of the flip lock...yes it takes a few extra micro seconds to adjust and lock down the legs to hold that 50-500mm lens + body but my ratio of shots gotten now as opposed to before is way up...so for me it is very much worth saving myself from the pain I was inflicting on myself.

Aperture Ring, Depth of Field Scale and New Lenses

2012-01-18T06:49:00.000-08:00

I have been wonder why aperture rings have been removed from the newer lenses...I mean really people....I used Hyper Focal Distance a lot when shooting outdoors, for wildlife and especially land/cityscapes....which you cannot do without an Aperture Ring and Depth of Field Scale....I know a lot of you have no idea what Hyper Focal Distance is or even the Depth of field Scale is...so i will do a post on that later...but every photographer worth any amount of salt needs the aperture ring and depth of field scale... I know it seems like being able to change the aperture wit hthe turn of a wheel is great... ... ... and it is..but being able to turn an aperure ring to get to hyper focal distance is even greater...

Photography is about control, control of the light and focus and all the other elements it take to create your perfect image and with out an aperture ring you do not have that control.

ANOTHER FREE E BOOK BY SCOTT BOURNE.

2012-01-04T11:29:00.001-08:00

http://tinyurl.com/78eewmn This is a link to a FREE eBook by Scott Bourne...hope you find it helpful.

CRAZY MIND BLOWING SMALL BUSINESS SATURDAY PORTRAIT SPECIAL

2011-11-24T21:54:00.000-08:00

BOOK A SITTING ON SMALL BUSINESS SATURDAY OR SUNDAY & PAY 27.89 CASH OR CHECK(TAX INCLUDED)
{CREDIT CARDS THRU PAYPAL ONLY BY EMAIL INVOICE MUST BE PAID BY SUNDAY NIGHT OR SITTING WILL BE CANCELLED}
MUST BE PAID AT TIME OF BOOKING SITTING.

PORTRAITS CAN BE TAKEN ANYTIME IN DEC....

YOU RECEIVE 2-8X10 AND 4- 5X7.

Extended hours for sittings thru Dec 15th.....will take appointments until 11pm.

!!!! CALL 316-250-8761 TODAY FOR APPOINTMENT AND BE SURE TO SAY YOU WANT THE MIND BLOWING SMALL BUSINESS SATURDAY SPECIAL !!!!

NOV / DEC SPECIAL

2011-11-19T22:28:00.000-08:00

... CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW TO ENLARGE THEN RIGHT CLICK and SAVE TO DESKTOP AND PRINT OFF AS A COUPON ...SPREAD THE WORD .... IF PHOTOS ARE TAKEN BY DEC 15 THEN THEY WILL BE BACK IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS.... Currently only accepting cash and good checks

No Interest Payment Plans

2011-10-16T21:24:00.000-07:00

I have PAYMENT PLANS WITH NO FINANCE CHARGES ... ... ... I am not talking credit card payments...this is especially good for anyone looking for a wedding photographer...... small weekly or monthly payments, as long as the balance is paid off 2 weeks prior to session / wedding date.

I know there are a lot of people that want professional photography and settle for the wedding Mill or mall portrait photographer cause it is cheap....and they are cheap for a reason.

Yes even I took my family to a cheap mall photographer once.....the images did not last...by not lasting I mean they turned colors, nasty magenta's, yellow's...just nasty and I have snap shots taken by my late father back in the 1940's and 50's that are still crisp and bright.....I use 2 of the VERY BEST LABS IN THE NATION to print my work. Unlike some photographers that run a special and then use the cheapest lab they can find, I still use the same world class labs for my work no matter what the special price is....

Why do I have 2 labs for my work... simply because during different holidays and peak seasons one lab may be running a bit behind or as we all know equipment fails so I always have back ups....for everything....I have back ups for all harddrives, cameras, and also my labs.....That way if one is behind schedule I do not have to contact you my client and say "well instead of the promised 2 week delivery it will be 4 weeks cause the lab is behind....and I am trying out new labs during the year so if need I have another contingency to keep myself from becoming behind.

Fall Special - $100 off for Outdoor Portraits.

2011-10-13T07:39:00.000-07:00

Wichita Ks area.....Senior, Family, Business or Modeling Session ...
FALL PORTRAIT SPECIAL UNTIL OCT 31, 2011 - - $100 OFF PORTRAIT SESSIONS ($75 + TAX) - OUTDOORS ONLY - NO STUDIO SESSIONS FOR THIS PRICE .... CALL 316 - 250 - 8761 TO SET APPOINTMENT .... The outdoors is so wonderful right now we should be spending as much time in it as possible.
Fee Due at booking time ... cash ,check or credit card (credit card through PayPal only)

Exif,Dgin, and using a pic as a link to larger image

2011-09-13T06:29:00.000-07:00

I had posted a thread on the photo forum Dgrin and I made the images direct links to larger sized images....then I found my exif information was not there...so i unlinked the images made a click here statement and the exif showed up...so if you participate on Dgrin and want to link to a larger image do not use the original as your link or the exif will not show up....
Have a wonderful day.

Online Buying....Ebay, Photography forums......

2011-08-27T21:12:00.000-07:00

Wichita Kansas is a city of nearly 500K people and we are now down to 2 camera stores (at one time there were 5 spread across town and the largest was almost in the center of town.)... when I switched back to Nikon for digital I went to what used to be the largest but is still the nicest store to see what could be had....the owner told me he gave up the Nikon dealership and was now canon....but the other guy about 2 or 3 miles away has been a canon dealer for ever......So I had to start shopping online for what I needed and wanted, to this I am no stranger.....it seems as If I had almost always been a mail order buyer before the internet, due to the fact that no one carried what I was looking for and seriously all the cam stores carried off brand no name accessories at that time...any way......I do spend a lot of time on eBay looking and checking prices of all sorts of photo items and other stuff I have that I want to sell......I have been told that I was crazy to sell and buy on Ebay, instead of the friendly Photo forums....well I sell on Ebay and only accept Paypal as a form of payment...so your safety as well as mine...........but.....the reason i started this bloated dialogue is this......I cannot believe how many people have stuff for sale for too high a price when the whole item is not there.....for instance....I was looking at a lens the title was quite catchy....Like new such and such lens in mint condition ......included in the auction is the lens and front and rear caps.......email seller asking do you have the lens hood......and get a rude response...WAS IT LISTED IN THE AUCTION....i SAID LENS AND CAPS.....2ND EMAIL.......do you have the lens bag?......response: NO ...WAS IT LISTED...GUESS YOU CANNOT READ...LENS AND CAPS THAT IS ALL.......3rd email....Can I pay extra for insurance......RESPONSE....NO!!......
I see all sort of items stating MINT Condition but missing parts.....how is that MINT.......I mean If I offer a car for sale in near Mint or in Mint condition wouldn't require all the parts to be there....seriously folks......I do not care about boxes or warranty cards on used equipment but I want the lens, front and rear caps, lens hood and the protective bag if it is advertised as mint.....now I can even allow for a set screw mark in the rubber bottom of a battery grip and still have it advertised as "like new but used".......

so folks read the whole advertisement and ask lots of questions when buying online and for your own safety use PayPal and make sure the person has at least a 3 day return if not satisfied if the item costs over $20.00 ...selling something used and not having a return is bad also make sure it is insured so if UPS, Fed Ex or USPS damages it a refund can be had.........

Happy and SAFE shopping..............

Copying Files from Small Hard Drive to Larger Hard Drive

2011-08-24T06:08:00.000-07:00

My 2.5" laptop external drive was full, this was meant to be a portable hard drive for traveling......but somehow it became just another one of my external drives.....Then all of a sudden I was going to need it and needed to have it empty.....Well I got lucky and found a great deal on Seagate 2TB internal drives (which is what I started using instead of external drives for storage)and I picked up one...........now to copy all the stuff off the 2.5 inch external to the 3.5" Seagate.......I moved all the files that had been imported thru Lightroom 3 and then started the mass exodus of the remaining 29,000+ files.....highlighted all the folders and dragged them to their new home and waited for the Win 7 pop up that would tell me how long this move would take......approx 10 hours.......Time for bed.....so I went to sleep to get this morning and still have over an hour to wait for the move to be finished....So I took hold of the new Seagate 2TB drive to see how hot it is....to my surprise it was not hot at all.....wow the drive is cool the dock is cool.....and everything is super quiet.
So what I use is this: ThermalTake Black Widow Blac X Gaming Hard Drive Dock...this is a single bay dock that I have been using for a couple of years but this is the 1st time I have used it to move files like this...normally I insert a hard drive and download my memory cards from my camera and do my Lightroom and photoshop work then I am done...so it is turned on and running for a few hours (1-4) at a time.....so a 10 hour continual run and nothing heated up is great, as I forgot to turn on my little 10" fan that I have to keep things cooled down since the dock nor the hard drives have a cooling fan (of course).......
My reason for using a hard drive dock and internal hard drives for storage is pretty simple....I use a 3 drive back up system: 1st drive is main working drive and then I have 2 drives that are exact copies of the 1st drive for back up. Now when you do this with external harddrives in enclosures, it takes up tons of room to store external harddrives but internal drives take up a lot less room and can be easily stack on top of each other in a good quality gun safe for safe keeping (make sure the gun safe has a fire rating of at least 1 hour or more)........As the laptop drives get larger in capacity I will be changing from 3.5" desktop drives to the 2.5" laptop drives to save even more space.

Why I quit offering International shipping when selling on EBAY.....

2011-08-16T08:48:00.000-07:00

Over the last 11 years of using Ebay for buying and selling, I always offered world wide shipping any that PayPal was available and to any confirmed PayPal address.....but no longer and here is why.....and I know it seems like an insult to possible International Buyers and for that I am sorry.
In the past I would sell and item to someone in Germany or the Ukraine and off it would go......then I had to fill out a little green form, single page....4 or 5 questions...no problem there was a space I could even put it was of no commercial value...so that customs new it was a used item and I was not a retail business selling for profit.......now I have to fill out a form that is nearly impossible to understand the terminology and when I call the USPS number for help it seems they do not know what is supposed to go on certain lines...and because of this if I make a mistake on the form the item could get held up in customs or worse sent back to me or even worse cost the buyer to have to pay some sort of import tax.......I do not understand why our govt keeps wanting to make stuff more and more complicated for the little person....it really is a pain in the rear end......any way that is why I no longer offer worldwide International shipping on my eBay auctions.....

Forgot how much fun FILM can be......

2011-08-08T22:09:00.000-07:00

Dug out my Nikon F70.....yes I said F70...that was the European model of the USA's N70....it had a nice quartz date / time on the back and a switch to shoot panorama shots......was not my bag back in the day...but I got one great deal on the camera when I purchased it.......
Well today i inserted 2 new CR123A batteries and locked my Sigma 50-500 on it...turned it on and half pressed the shutter button and ............. well the speed with which it grabbed focus was unreal...my D300 is no where as fast to grab focus with that lens.....the film has been in the camera for many years so who knows what it will turn out like but...it was just amazing at how blazing fast it focused......I will be getting a roll or 2 of Fuji 100 or even 50 iso print film as soon as I get to a real camera store and have a go at shooting film again......unfortunately my only real option is to use my AIS manual focus lenses for now if I want any real control over shutter speed or aperture...so that blazing fast focus won't be happening with the AIS lenses as they are manual focus but sharp as freshly slivered glass......so let the fun begin...again.

Quantum Cable MKZ9 - review....rant

2011-08-05T17:47:00.000-07:00

I have been using Quantum batteries and cables for most of my 30+ yrs of doing photography.....i have used the batteries and cables for Sunpak 522's, 622's, 622 super Pro's, Minolta flashes and Nikon flashes....but the cable the cable for the new Nikon SB900 is junk....or at least the one I have is junk.....flimsy made....without 2 rubber bands and a small stack of washers to press the thing down it looses contact...it has no real locking mechanism like the MKZ3 cable that has twist locking mechanism inside the dummy battery...you pressed down and turn the lock and it stayed......with the MKZ9 you have exposed wires that will in a short while wear thru and possible short out......This is the worst made piece of PRO photo equipment I have ever had my hands on....I emailed Quantum and pretty all they had to say was so sorry your are displeased maybe you should consider moving over to the turbo line which the cable connects to the front of the SB900 instead of thru the battery compartment......my answer was...I will sell off my Quantum Equipment and buy from China...for less than the cost of 2 MKZ9 cables I can get......complete battery, charger and cable to connect to the front port of the SB900.......normally I do not like spending money overseas with our bad economy, but a so sorry email from you and I will not do business with you any longer and I will sell all of your products that I am using currently...and Chinese products have been climbing in quality for a while now.......so it looks lie it will be good bye to usa made Quantum...........

Flash Brackets.........a new dilemma ......A Rant

2011-07-29T20:46:00.000-07:00

I have used flash brackets for over 30 yrs...I have tried dang near every type on the market and settled on the Camera rotation type as they kept the flash centered above the camera and it was much easier to get camra flipped and not worry about the flash, rather than turning camera side ways and then reorienting the flash...too time consuming.....
Now I have a dilemma....on my old brackets I had a place for a cable release to be held and of course that made firing a camera a lot easier than trying to hold the set up , focus camera and then find the shutter button and press it......NOW THE DILEMMA....Digital cameras do not have a cable release socket on the shutter button and digital releases of any sort are cumbersome when it comes to being used like this....why did the camera companies not put a simple socket on the release button for a simple straight forward cable release to connect to.....It would have made life for us photographers that love to use flash brackets a whole lot easier and simpler.....

Have a great weekend.

Mozilla Firefox Weirdness

2011-07-29T12:24:00.000-07:00

The weirdest darn things have been happening.....I had about 10 browsing windows open ...some with as many as 65 tabs going......and all of a sudden my computer slowed down so slow and firefox kept crashing...I mean crashing 20-30 times a day....not good when trying to fil out job apps or doing an online interview for a job or just trying to answer questions sent off your website......Dell could not find it....then I decided to see how many tabs were on my main browser window...it had almost 400...then I noticed I had 2-3 times the browser windows than I should have........the dang things were multiplying like bunnies....no viruses found but that was truly weird......

I know the [people at Firefox are wondering what the crap was happening......and I have no idea....one window that should have only had 62 or 63 tabs...had 194........now i have tons of junk to sort thru and delete.......Crazy Weirdness......

Letting Go.......of Items NOT used in a long while and just Gathering Dust

2011-07-21T23:01:00.000-07:00

I am putting lots of goodies on EBAY for Auction...some photographically: Minolta, Quantum and Nikon for starters...my ebay alais is ST Vitas.....
Here is a link to the Nikon MB-D10 Multi-Power Battery Pack just click other items on the right side near the top to see other things and check back as I do not have time to have a garage sale and this is to clear out storage space and allow for a new tool or 2.......

Multiple Email Accounts...can be a Pain but.......

2011-06-24T14:08:00.000-07:00

If you have several email accounts you may really want to look at Mozilla's Thunderbird, unless you are tied to MS Outlook....I went from Outlook express to Windows live email / hotmail ..it only allowed 4 accounts but when I answered an email from my say Lycos account..it sent the reply from Hotmail, and that confused tons of people.....so....I was out looking for an email client and looked back into Outlook express (never was a fan, but it was all I could find at one time and it was also included with teh Winders OS's......so.....I used it)......Since I do not use Internet Explorer and other MS stuff and I do use and really like Mozilla's FireFox, I went a searching thru Mozilla........and took a look see....and I tried out Thunderbird...now I am not a geek so having to do any coding is out....I mean it is O.....U.......T.....that is why I am still running winders OS and not LINUX....god I would love to be running all my photo software on Linux.....anyway........I gave Mozilla's Thunderbird a try a few weeks back and sang its praises (on FaceBook).......Today...I will say I love Thunderbird and when you reply to an email, it signs into your actual email account and leaves the sent message in your sent box there.....and the recipient sees it comes from the email addy they sent the message to originally........and I do not see the Mozilla Thunderbird team just dropping the support for it...........

It is so nice to click on one icon and being able to once again read all of my email.....by simply clicking on the corresponding email inbox........

Have a great Weekend.

Website Changes.......

2011-06-07T00:06:00.000-07:00

Got major stuff done to the website { http://www.artscottfotografie.com } that make it much cleaner and organized.....but I made the mistake of not taking a screenshot of it first so I could actually show the difference....now I just need a nice elegant Header and I would be very very very very pleased.....as it is I am just pleased.

take a looksee and send me a message using the contact me link just under the Header.....

Have a great week!!!

6-3-2011 Making some Changes

2011-06-03T14:43:00.000-07:00

Well today would have been my mothers 91st birthday, but cancer got her a very long time ago.....but the changes have nothing to do with cancer, dying or my mother....this is a photography blog......

Well I am not a coder so coding for a website is extremely tough, especially when you have to sit and wait for someone to tell what code to put where.....but.....
I have started redoing my website and it is truly looking better.....I need to get a nice pretty splash page and then some tidying up on the inside and it will be much better looking.......my eyes are killing me, I have thru 2 bottles of eye drops in the last couple of days....but a small expense for much better results down the road.

PayPal ......

2011-05-24T20:05:00.000-07:00

I have been using PayPal for some 10 years now.
Do I trust them........most definitely and why......because I do not have to keep giving out my personal info to sell and buy off different sites.
PayPal also makes it very easy to do business with clients in Canada, the U.K. or even Czech Republic. All I have to do is send an invoice by email and the client pays in his currency or US Dollars, which ever is prefered.

PayPal has it now so you do not have to have a PayPal Account to be able to purchase using PayPal.

This really simplifies selling to foreign clients.

I do have to send a 2nd invoice for shipping and packaging but that is a minor inconvenience to be able to have clients all around the world.

My Heart Nearly Stopped!!!!!!!!

2011-04-03T06:50:00.000-07:00

Needed to off load some pix so I could head off to a retirement / birthday party shoot.....so I plug in my current working drive......damn thing starts sputtering the lights on flickering and it will not show up in Disk management...so I switch to my back up ....same thing.... and then the 3 rd copy....same thing...my heart is racing and pounding like Vesuvius when it buried Pompey....time was running out so I dumped the files onto my c drive and left to go shoot......

Came home...fired up the 'puter and plugged in main working drive....again it flickered and sputtered...and so did the other 2........damn how can 3 drives go bad in less than 2 days and at the same time.....it they had been Western Digital or Maxtor's I would have expected it...but not Seagate......I have lost a Seagate drive but never 2 or 3 out of the same batch......so I unplugged my tablet and plugged in my working drive again, directly to computer no USB dock......it fired up, quiet and smooth no hitch......now I feel I can sleep.........check the 2 copy drives...all good.....heart rate down, pulse - normal and blood sugars dropping..........cold sweat gone.........I do have all of the jpgs stored on SmugMug but I was worried about my DNGs..........

Moral ....I need an AC power cable for my laptop cooler and the 2 other usb docks.....they all accept power supplies I just did not purchase them when i purchased the docks or cooler....dummy me......
If you are using any sort of USB dock and it accepts an AC power supply....make sure to use it.

Yup that scared the bejeezers out of me.................and some other stuff also

I let the 3 drives spin all night long connected directly to the computer....they are still nice and quiet 12 hrs later and still spinning.....until tomorrow night when I split them up to their respective off site storage places

Are You in NEED of a POST PROCESSOR???

2011-03-11T16:38:00.000-08:00

Are you in need of a post processor because you are just way to busy to keep up with all the processing?? Or maybe you really do not like processing but love creating magical images and wish you had a darkroom tech just like in the film days........Well I will recommend one for you.....He is very particular about his processing and wants clients to be very happy....He is a photographer also.

His name is Chad Dahlquist and is 1/2 of the Happy Fish Design and Post Production Services team.....H.F.D.P.PS. can also help you with the tedious task of designing really great albums also.....the design side is run by his wife Karen.....
For a Price list on Processing follow this link: http://tinyurl.com/4fhzaok .

On the contact form fill out all but the album info and in the comments section ask for a processing price list or ask for a processing and album design price list.

Karen and Chad are great to work with.

You can send your files to them on disk (snail mail) or FTP them to them....FTP is of course the fastest way to deliver and receive the files.....I recommend 2 free FTP clients: FileZilla and FireFTP ...both are from Mozilla and work great with FireFox Browser......and I also recommend SMART FTP but it is not free.

Have a great Friday.

ALIEN BEE STUDIO FLASHES

2011-02-18T20:48:00.000-08:00

I have been watching the prices of Alien Bee Professional studio flash units on a few forums and auction sites and i cannot believe what I see......People are more than willing to pay full retail for used flashes....I am talking seeing flashes that are 3-5yrs old selling for full retail + shipping and handling.......I watched one auction with a buy it now of $400 go for more.....just reading the auction it sounded decent, until you took the time to price the flash ($280), the umbrella ($30) the stand ($30) and a softbox ($45)......the prices in ( ) are full retail...this seller paid maybe $400 if you figure in S/H....but everything was 4.5yrs old.....This is just craziness .....

Have a great weekend...............

Want Portrait But Do Not Want to Get Out in Bad Weather or ....

2011-02-03T15:23:00.000-08:00

Want Portrait But Do Not Want to Get Out in Bad Weather or ....have small children that you do not want to take out for any pone of several reason, we as parents do not want to take the children out from home.....

Call a Photographer that makes house calls...yes concierge photogs...I have made house calls for ever.....not just the well to do's but also to the average worker, their time is valuable also and sometimes it just makes for a better portrait session for ME the photog to come to you....that way you are in your own element, you feel way more relaxed and can pretty much do what ever you want to..it is YOUR home and space...so if being barefoot is part of being comfy..do it and tell mister photog ...no pix show feet......also no need to PACK CLOTHING changes to go to the studio, clothes stay in closet.....A lot of 'togs charge a premium to come to you...I do not....I have minimum of 3 hours set for every in home portrait and I am normally early..then I carry the lights in and get set up.....this includes office portraits and such also....

So remember that some of us truly enjoy being at YOUR service.......so the next time you need a REAL FAMILY portrait give me a call....even if your family is just you and the python .....or Lassie or Silver...you get the picture.....we can include pets in the pix also.....they actually own us notthe other way around.

Venting some more...yepoo still DGRIN STUFF....

2011-02-01T19:53:00.000-08:00

It is funny that 99% of the mods are not actual Photographers...but rather wannbes...they hide in their offices all day as engineers and other such people with a 9-5 paycheck job and take a few pics here and there...they are not out in the trenches shooting for a living......Where did they study photography...they did not...but yet they think they have the proper knowledge to run a photography forum...not hardly...they like the control they can have over others.....the most Fascist are a west coast engineer and an east coast Physicist and he really got bad after earning his PHD......but if the actual head of the forums would simply slap his buddies once in a while rather than allowing them to run off some the most creative people from across the globe then the forum would grow leaps and bounds...instead of people posting that AI am leaving because of how I have been treated by tyrannical mods/admins....it is never the powers that be fault...it is always the forum users fault....if these powers run their homes like they do Dgrin then they are abusing their wives and children......it has been proven over and over again on Law and Order and other law enforcement tv shows.......really what has happened on Dgrin to nite is not much different than Egypt cutting all cell phone and internet and train availability for its people....simply just another form of Fascism but from american tyrrants......

Smugmug came on line with out any really good way to upload photos...ask for a better way..of anything and you get standard run around the bush of answers...but we refuse to give a definitive answer because one of our competitors might be watching....case in point i started hosting my pix there a little over 5yrs ago...but could not upload very fast...sometimes it took days to upload a few pix...a few is under 100 jpegs.....they want to cater to the PRO but refuse to allow us to store raw or dng files, but they partnered with Amazon and offered disk space that for me 5yrs ago would have cost me over $2k/yr to store my Original files whether raw or DNG......
nope not me..so I have a collection of hard drives storing my images by year taken...has cost me less than 1k so far....for 3 copies of each drive......

The real kicker, FTP has been around since April 16, 1971...since its inception FTP has been the FREAKING STANDARD for transferring files.....and the owners of SmugMUg / Dgrin did not allow for its use that is pure and simple idiocy....it is fast as hell it is safe and if your computer or the one being transferred to shuts down...the transfer will start up again when the problem is solved and the path is open again......but no they keep coming up with crap uploaders even when asked to implement the use of FTP........or they tell you to by one from a software developer that hangs on the forum........why the hell buy one FIREFTP is free from Mozilla....get real SMUGMUG

DGRIN is at it again....Forum Fascism coming to the top again

2011-02-01T19:12:00.000-08:00

Dgrin and it tyrannical mods (not all are tyrants), but a few are and they are real close to being exactly like the rulers a that oppressed them as children...Oh that is what we learn by our oppressors....to oppress others......

First of all mods and admins do not a forum make...it takes the people who sign up for that forum or group of forums......

To night a very good and informative Photog got banned from DGRIN simply for not agreeing with the Mods and Admins...no profanity was used...no name slinging, no racial slurs..we simply do not agree with the changes they are forcing on us.....they , Dgrin did not ask the us the clients, for our opinion...this is not the 1st time....they closed a forum on a whim...there were tons of photo newbies (for lack of a better term at this time) seeking help and I was in the middle of posting ideas to one such new photographer and I hit post and I found the forum closed....and closed in such away you could not start a discussion on why....when I asked why, I was told that is how it is..there will be no discussion...the title of the Thread to close the forum was the ASININE title of DGRIN is GOING GREEN and people were "URGED" to post their questions in the correctly corresponding forum..so if it was a macro question go to Holy Macro, if it is a wildlife question go to the wildlife forum and so on...we lost a lot of people that day..and no one...I mean no one came to RE-POST their question....Dgrin has been losing in the popularity battle for a while now....they always said they were nicer than Fred Miranda's forum and also DP Review ...but I am seeing a great amount of Fascism in the way they do things.........

I will be banned next more than likely for this posting on my own blog.....or for not agreeing with them on the subject of FTPing for uploading our photos...I come on people FTP has been a standard for almost 40 yrs,,,it will be 40 years on APRIL 16......

Hope I found all my typos...good night

SNOW...this is terrible SNOW!!

2011-02-01T10:05:00.000-08:00

taking a short lunch break.........this is not good snow..it is dry, it is blowing...it is terrible......going out of house for lunch with camera.....maybe the photo ops will be better towards evening........

EVERYONE BE SAFE

sTRESSFUL eVENING.......DAY.....ALL OF IT

2011-01-29T22:24:00.000-08:00

oK THIS IS A RANT TO GET STRESS DOWN SO i CAN SLEEP....
I HAVE BEEN A MEMBER OF DGRIN FOR OVER 5YRS...AT TIMES THE MODS DECIDE TO MOVE A POST AND IT IS GONE....FOR THE AVERAGE PERSON THIS IS PROBABLY NO PROBLEM...THEY SEARCH THEIR LIST OF SUBSCRIPTIONS AND GO CLICK ON THE THREAD........BUT A LOT OF THE MODS.....HAVE THE IDEA THEY CAN DO THIS WITHOUT QUESTION.....CASE IN POINT......i POSTED A QUESTION ABOUT MY WEBSITE AND ABOUT COMMENTING ON THE PHOTOS.....COULD I CONTROL IF IT WAS A PHOTO COMMENT OF COMPLETE GALLERY COMMENT......ALL i NEEDED WAS A SIMPLE ANSWER OF NO IT MUST BE DONE THRU CUSTOMIZING THE CODE TO THE GALLERY / SITE AND YOU COULD PUT THIS IN AS A FEATURE REQUEST....BUT NO THE MOD, GENERALLY A DECENT GUY, MOVED THE THREAD TO A DIFFERENT FORUM.........NOW DO i NEED TO TELL EVERYONE MY BUSINESS OF HOW i RUN MY DAILY LIFE, AS IN HOW MANY FORUMS I PARTAKE IN, HOW MANY BLOGS i HAVEETC ETC ETC....NO I SHOULD NOT HAVE TO EXPLAIN WHY I DO THINGS THE WAY I DO....OK SO MY QUESTION IS NO LONGER WHERE i POSTED IT...i HAVE TO SEARCH FOR IT.....PRETTY SIMPLE....GO TO TOP OF FORUM CLICK ON YOU...NOW GO DOWN THE LIST TO LIST SUBSCRIPTIONS CLICK ON THAT....NOW YOU HAVE TO SEARCH THE LIST ( I AM SUBSCRIBED TO OVER 1700 THREADS)TO FIND THE QUESTION i HAD POSTED....YOU MUST REALIZE THAT IF THREAD #1700 GETS A POST BY ANYONE NOT JUST ME IT MOVES UP TO #1 ON MY LIST SO WITH THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE COMMENTING ON DIFFERENT THREAD MY ORIGINAL POST IS DROPPING FAST.........OK i FOUND IT...NOW CLICK ON IT.....

oK NOW i AM HOT......THE MOD DOESN'T ACTUALLY ANSWER MY QUESTION BUT POINTS ME TO A LIST OF CUSTOMIZATIONS....SO NOW i HAVE TO SCROLL DOWN LOOKING AT EACH AND EVERY POST THAT IS NOT REMOTELY RELATED TO MY QUESTION....GRANTED ALL THIS STUFF HAS BEEN GENERATED BY THE MOD CAUSE HE LIKES CODING AND HE HAS DONE IT FOR FREE.....GREAT......SO AI AM STILL LOOKING AND GETTING MORE FRUSTRATED AND PISSED....SO FINALLY 2/3 WAY DOWN i SEE ANOTHER LINK POINTING TO WHAT i HOPE IS WHAT i WANT........i ARRIVE AT THIS JUNCTURE TO SEE CODE....i HAVE NO CLUE IF IT IS html, CSS, JAVA, PERL OR WHAT THE f***.........AND NO REAL INSTRUCTIONS ON WHERE IT GOES......I AM NO CODER, 10 YRS AGO OR BETTER I DESIGNED SEVERAL GREAT LOOKING HTML SITES...THEN THIS NEW CRAP CAME A LONG CALLED CSS, SUPPOSE TO MAKE STUFF EASIER AND FASTER AND PRETTIER...FOR ME IT CREATED PROBLEMS....AND ADDED TO THE LONG LIST OF CODE I HAD TO LEARN...I QUIT DOING ANY WEBSITE BUILDING....ENUFF ON THIS BACK TO MY RANT.....SO i GO BACK TO MY POST AND BLOW A GASKET...NOT OVER THE CODE BUT BECAUSE MY THREAD HAD BEEN MOVED AND WAS NOT GIVEN A STRAIGHT ANSWER LIKE: SORRY ART TO DO WHAT YOU WANT YOU MUST DO A BIT OF CUSTOM CODING AND ALSO YOU SHOULD PLACE THIS OVER ON THE FEATURE REQUEST FORUM........NOPE i GOT A LOOK HERE FOR WHAT YOU NEED ANSWER....SO YES I AM PISSED AND YES I UNDERSTAND THAT 99.99999% OF ALL FORUM MODS ARE VOLUNTEERS.......AS I SAID I BLOW AND THEN THE COO OF SM GETS INVOLVED AND I SEND HIM A PERSONAL EMAIL...NOT A FORUM PM BUT AN EMAIL FROM MY EMAIL ADDRESS...THEN ANOTHER MOD THAT HAS NO BUSINESS GETTING INVOLVED POSTS A SLAP TO ME JUST CAUSE HE CAN...THIS GUY THINKS HE IS GOD AND CAN DO WHATEVER HE WANTS BECAUSE HE IS BUDDIES WITH THE COO AND HE GETS AWAY WITH IT...HE IS ONE IF YOU DISAGREE WITH HIM YOU GET BANNED FROM THE FORUM........i HAD TO EXPLAIN WHY GOING THRU 4 DIFFERENT LINKS AND SEARCHING FOR MY POST WAS A HUGE WASTE OF TIME FOR ME...SHIT TIME IS MONEY....i HAD TO EXPLAIN THAT i KEEP TABS OPEN FOR EACH AND EVERY QUESTION i HAVE ON ALL FORUMS AND OTHER PLACES INCLUDING DIFFERENT BLOGS...ETC...ETC..ETC...YEP i HAVE OVER 300 TABS RUNNING ON ONE COMPUTER ALONE...I DO NOT CARE IF THE COO OR ANYONE BELIEVES IT...IT IS IMMATERIAL..IT IS NONE OF THEIR BUSINESS.........WHAT MATTERS IS THAT A PAYING CLIENT HAD TO SEARCH AND HUNT AND WASTE HIS TIME TO FIND A POST HE MADE A LITTLE EARLIER......WHAT MATTERS IS THESE MODS DO NOT ASK IF WE THE CLIENTS ARE OK WITH A POST BEING MOVED AND WHY....THEY JUST DO IT AND IF YOU BITCH YOU COULD GET BANNED ...........

GOOD NIGHT.

Really great Article on Why Software is not FREE

2011-01-28T22:38:00.000-08:00

Here is a really great article on why software is not free...at lest 99.9% of the good to great software:

http://tinyurl.com/4dz3n9a

Now apply this too Photographs and photography in general.....

WACOM IS NOT THE ONLY CHOICE FOR A TABLET TO PROCESS PHOTOS WITH.....

2011-01-27T14:49:00.000-08:00

Vistablet VT 12W, from my research this is their original tablet and there are other and more expensive models to choose from.....

I AM NOT A MAC USER AND SOMETIMES I FORGET TO INCLUDE INFO FOR MAC USERS...THIS IS COMPLETELY COMPATIBLE WITH MAC OSX OR LATER......

An inexpensive tablet: 12.1" widescreen / w 10x6.25 active area........I could not get my wacom tablet (graphire) to play nice with my Dell Studio 17 with Win 7 ultimate / 64bit...not even in XP mode..so it has been sitting and I have been really struggling with PHOTO processing....as my ability to do precise work with trackball is terrible and even worse with a mouse.....new wacoms are just a tad pricey and no one carries anything but the lowest end bamboo series...so that means ordering paying shipping and then if not liked returning on ones own dime (or $15 or so)...so looking thru Ebay for something like a wacom 3 used I ran across this Vistablet with a 2 yr warranty & offices in Cali........Ok I was wanting something larger than my previous 4x6 active area on the Graphire and this was larger and only $79+s/h (~$13) {THIS WAS THE EBAY PRICE..OF THE VISTABLET WEBSITE IT IS $131.99} .......so far it is interesting...I am finding the whole tablet active not just the outlines work area, it seems to be active corner to corner on the grey area, which is great so far...the pen runs off a AAA batt and the tablet activates with pen a little over an inch off of it......I need to load the software and then re-start computer.......they even offer a full trade in value when you are ready to upgrade...so with warranty of 2yrs and full value trade in for upgrade....it is already sounding better than Wacom, they have a ways to go to get the confidence of the world that Wacom has but they could possibly grab a good portion of the market......next few days are very busy but then I plan on getting to use this before the weekend is over...and I will come back with more on how it worked for me.....

I have not gotten into the programming of the Macro Keys as my Wacom Graphire does not have them.....so my use has been as a large "basic" tablet..and it seems to respond very well...it is odd having the pen activate while still approx 1/2' off the tablet but it does a very good job and when it comes to doing my signature with the pen...well it has not made my signature look any better and I was hoping a new tablet would be the cure.......Just Kidding....there is no cure for my handwriting.... :~}}

Any way Vistablet VT 12W tablet is way better than my Graphire was as I now know I truly needed more work-space and it feels much better and natural using this tablet.........for $79=$13 s/h{THIS WAS THE EBAY PRICE..OF THE VISTABLET WEBSITE IT IS $131.99)

I am satisfied..especially since I can upgrade and get a full purchase price trade in value in the future....and also there is a 2yr warranty...... Hope this help people looking for a tablet and just feel the wacoms are too expensive.

eyes have been burning like they are on fire

2011-01-26T19:02:00.000-08:00

My eyes have been burning like crazy since Monday morning.....I have a headshot shoot to get processed and also another shoot....between the burning and the throbbing headaches it has been a terrible week to this point...............

Act Today or KISS YOUR ORGANICS GOODBYE

2011-01-22T21:30:00.001-08:00

Act Today or KISS YOUR ORGANICS GOODBYE

If you care about your food supply and what the Govt wants to do , you need to go here and let them know........Link:

http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/sign/kiss_your_organics_goodbye

Feel Free to share this link.....

A plea for help........

2011-01-19T23:43:00.000-08:00

Yup that is correct...... a plea for help....
I use a Sekonic L-558 DualMaster Light meter a lot......Tonight I noticed that it did not feel right in my hand and I found I was missing tghe front rubber grip....directly under the memory button......I did email Sekonic...but thought I woudl put out a plea for help on the net...if anyone has a Sekonic L-558 that is dead I would entertain the thought of buying it for basic parts.....

Thanx!!!

I won.....I won.....I won........

2011-01-16T23:40:00.000-08:00

I just won Jason Groupp 's newest DVD, 25 Kick Ass Lighting Scenarios ....time to learn some new lighting tricks.....Thanks SMUGMUG / Andy!!!!!

Can't wait for it to arrive......and get new insights on lighting.....beeen doing it almost the same for the last 30 yrs......

Do not know what I was not doing.......

2011-01-13T21:39:00.000-08:00

I do not know what it was I was not doing on my Art for Your Wall blog but every time I turned around it was messed up......I changed the html... I previewed and it looked good.....titles sitting neatly on top of the photos, the buy buttons neatly on the bottom of each photo ....just like it should be....then I would come back a few hours later and it was screwy........so I would go in again and it all realigned again.....well I hope it stays correct now...I am tired of re-doing every thing again and again and again...it has been 5 times now that I have had to redo the darned blog.....my eyes hurt, are burning and I have quit taking the loratab for the pain from this last Saturdays accident (got rear ended) on my way to shoot a friend......hopefully I can stay awake to get her photos processed and uploaded to her gallery.....

Good Night.

PUBLISHED IMAGES FROM THE BOOK "BLUE GRASS VISIONS"

2011-01-11T21:13:00.000-08:00

Finally got all the published works from Blue Grass Visions on line...plus a few of my
favorites from the days in Lexington Ky.. but there is more to come from Lexington....just not tonight...here is the link to the post: http://artforyourwalls.blogspot.com/

Extremely Sore.................

2011-01-09T15:01:00.000-08:00

Well after yesterdays accident i am extremely sore, have monumental headache and my damn blood sugars are all over the place and so is my blood pressure.
I can only stand to be on computer for a few minutes at a time and I have crap loads of images to process.....this sux......the 1930's themed shoot went well, and the client felt good about the way things went....it client's gut feeling is good then most of my work is done...now to process into blk / white and sepia tones with grain...I did shoot a lot at ISO 1600 so hopefully this will be good....ok just the little amount of time typing this and my head is throbbing again.....
taking a short dinner break and then back to the grindstone known as LightRoom. :~}} :~}}

Part 2

2011-01-08T22:33:00.000-08:00

just got home from emergency room visit....cat scans shoed no trauma from being rear ended but did show a great amount of degenerative neck disease......that does not sound good....cat scan kept overheating and I was stuck in it and no one told me there was a prob the 1 time, I was just stuck in this room and the 2nd time I raised my voice a little....used what I call a school teahers voice to project a bit more and got someones attention and was then told the cat scan was over heating....of course I told them they needed to call WallDingers' and get someone out there to fix it and all I heard was Uh huh ......seemed like I was in that machine for hours and come to find out I was.........next several days I am gonna hurt was told to stay home and in bed for tomorrow, no taking pictures or running sound.......
Monday gotta find someone to do a really good inspection of the drive train to make reasonably sure my tranny and 4 wheel drive are all right.

Good Night all....

why you should always carry a camera with you....

2011-01-08T22:25:00.000-08:00

2:19pm headed east on douglas at Mclean stopped for red lite in Turn lane (was gonna turn south on McLean) got hit in rear end....my old 94 trooper is one tough vehicle....her Altima is totaled I do believe....her hood looked like a white triangle...Headed to... Hospital for xrays of back and neck.....

...when hot had a sharp pain in my spine...yes i was wearing my seat belt...she told police that she looked down then back up thought the lite was green and looked down again and then came to a sudden stop......DUUUUUHHHH....that is... wat happens when ya not payin' attention girlie......gotta find someone to give my car a thorough check over..no body damage but it may have really done internal damage to 4 wheel drive and tranny and all that stuff and loosened my exhaust...later folks..will put up pix later after hospital....this is why YOU should always have a camera with you and know how to use it......

ART FOR YOUR WALLS IS UP AND RUNNING BUT.........

2011-01-08T03:17:00.000-08:00

ART for YOUR WALLS IS UP AND RUNNING AND READY TO SELL ART WORK BUT IT IS AND NEVER WILL BE COMPLETE........as i can I will add more to the Published in Wichita Visions book and also add more gallerys to the site........still trying to find info about havng images side by side on blogspot blogs??????

I now also have an ABOUT ME, AN ABOUT THE IMAGES FOR SALE PAGE & PagesON WEDDING PORTRAIT AND ENLARGEMENTS....

I think I am finally done with my pricing for 2011....all new prices and info about WEDDINGS, PORTRAITS, and HEADSHOTS at this link: http://tinyurl.com/29vjal3

Ofcourse I still need to make HTML?CSS Pages on my SmugMug site to be truly done but this will work for now.....gotta get contracts done next
and I have a shoot in about 8hrs....

Pass the word to all that I am ready to start booking the 2011 wedding seniors or any other portrait sessions...........

ART for YOUR WALLS - still under construction - - -But up

2011-01-06T17:59:00.000-08:00

I just started a new blog : ART for YOUR WALLS.......It is not a text blog per se but a blog to showcase my images and sell them.
I will have permanent links on here so that all can find it with out a lot of work.

I will also have an ABOUT ME, a CONTACT ME Pages,as well as PORTRAIT, WEDDING price pages.

Coming soon.............ART for YOUR WALLS

2011-01-05T23:54:00.000-08:00

coming soon to Art Scott Fotografie will hopefully an ART for YOUR WALLS page for selling my Photo Art Work.....

On the sidebar I know you have noticed some small banners....there are companies that I highly recommend the use of ...... I hope you will use them, as they are the best in their specific areas.

Have a very Prosperous year......

Cpoyright Statements.....talking in Camera here.....

2011-01-03T12:11:00.000-08:00

My Cameras now have updated Copyright statements including phone number, luv Nikon for this, copyright gets attached to each image file in camera everytime the shutter is clicked........OH YEAH Love Nikon for this.....oh I already said that.....

For all that are wondering what the hell I am talking about....well it is a Nikon Thing.....it was one of the main reasons I went back Nikon when Konica Minolta sold out to Sony......in the SET Up menu of some of Nikons cameras there is a place to add the Artist name (you) and copy right Info Your name and year....well this year I added my cell phone number...

I hope I never get a call asking if I am the owner of an image file from one that has been stolen....but it is there if the need arises and hopefully I will always have the same cell number...well if it ever changes I can always update the info in the exif files........

One does have to remeber to remove this info when one sells the cameras.......or I could be copyrighting all sorts of images i have never taken :~}}

May your year be filled with wonderful light and images.....

Just a couple of thoughts that ran thru my mind.............................I am wondering....

2011-01-02T15:46:00.000-08:00

Just a couple of thoughts that ran thru my mind............................ I am wondering if there was a big party in Parsons Ks when the last roll of KodaChrome ran thru the machines and was boxed and shipped to its owner??? and who was that owner.........what happens now when there is 1k rolls found in some unkonw street photogs digs in the next 5 yrs........just sayin' ...........

OH yeah do not for get to check out Borrow Lenses when you need glass and do not want to buy it......RENT it from Borrow lenses......

Dang Allergies............Trying to clean camera sensors....

2011-01-01T12:01:00.000-08:00

Good Lord....supposed to be editing photos BUT ...eyes are burning and have steady stream of....well running nose and drainage into throat, making cough till I almost puke.ALLERGIES..yup...I might as well be standing neck deep in rag weed that is in full bloom or just a room full of swirling pollen...and it is winter time..today sucks.....it could be a lot worse..so I am thankful that it is not sucking any worse.

Takin loads of Dayquil, Musenex and theraflu severe cough med.....well it is slowing the drainage and runny nose a bit....hopefully this will not last a lot longer.....oh and I forgot the sneezing.......UUUUUUUgh...........the sneezing to causing havoc on sensor cleaning....just when I think I am done.......it hits again and then I have to re-clean....this cams sensor won't know what to think about being copperhilled so many times....gotta find the dust masks...

2010ccoming to a close......2011 just begining.................

2010-12-30T19:55:00.000-08:00

Hope to bring better information to you this next year....I will be back telling of my forays into HDR and other adventures as I can....so with that....

Have a very HAPPY and SAFE NEW YEARS.......

PayPal....why I love them......

2010-12-26T20:43:00.000-08:00

I buy and sell on line....a lot.....I have for many years, well over 10.
I got started when I heard of something called Ebay......but then there was no PayPal,
and I had to pay by debit card......well some how my bank acct was hacked and I lost all my money for nearly 2 weeks, I had overdrafts out the ying yang....but the bank came thru and wrote off the overdrafts and finally after almost 2 weeks I got my money back...........Then I was at the post office and ran into a guy I hadn't seen in a few years and he had started his own online business and he was telling me of this great payment company called PayPal.......He had went from being nearly destitute to racking in over 2 grand every couple of days. So I checked into it and read their terms and it all seemed ok except that if they thought you were doing anything illegal they would close your account and take your money....that did not hardly seem right............Right now your wondering why I love them .....well....read on......

I heard a few weeks later that this acquaintance had lost over 10k to PayPal because they thought he was selling drugs over the internet...it seemed logical to PayPal because he started out making less than $100/month 3 months ago and now he was doing 10K every few days.....so they seized his account........

After a long drawn out battle he got his money back and his attorney fees paid and he actually profited since all went his way.......there was absolutely nothing in the news about this but I got to see the documents as we hung out at the same club and he was proud of his victory.....

So I joined PayPal and used it for buying online as it kept my debit card info hidden from the companies I was buying from....then I got sold some real junk and luckily I had made a screen shot of the auction and sent it to paypal and ebay because the seller was refusing a refund on an improperly described item....(counterfeit memory cards)......took all of 3 days to get money back.....

Now I am feeling good about using them as they were instrumental in getting my refund....then my account was hacked and a couple of idiots in Germany bought several hundred $ worth of cell phone components...and again I had overdraft charges.
Well I took in PayPal's number and my bank called them and the overdrafts went away, that day, and all my bills were paid on time...PayPal agreed to get my money back from Germany, so my bank went ahead and authorized an advance into my account for the missing money...PayPal came thru again.....

I have had no problems since....I really like the fact that i can buy online and no one gets my bank info but PayPal....I do not have to enter any info on selling sites I am visiting to purchase.......

I still feel they are the safest way to shop online and I rad all the PayPal sux sites and all the disgruntled reports, but what I have found is that well of 90% of all the disgruntled reports are from idiots that do not comply with the use of PayPal....most of them sell items and only accept payment thru PayPal as a gift to avoid paying the PayPal fees.....PayPal as far as I know does not prosecute for this but they will shut down your account.........

As I said I am a PayPal fan and I do not accept any other payment method for online purchases, monthly payments on wedding bookings and such........also it means that I never saw or had privy to my clients Credit Cards or bank info....one less theing I need to worry about.

Have a fantastic NEW YEAR!!!!

Mailing Lists...........I hate them......and WHY I use a cell phone for business...

2010-12-24T07:18:00.000-08:00

I have an affinity to junk mail or mail sent to me by advertisers that bought my address (whether email or postal mail) from a mailing list provider........just plugs up mail boxes.........so I started a FAN page on FaceBook.....under the NOTES Tab I will be posting my special offers through out this next year....this way when I run a special all of my fans know days before anyone else and those fans can let their friends and family know.

so if you are not a fan then you should become one...........

Why I use a cell phone for business.......simply because I do not want to miss a call, also I shoot wildlife and Landscapes. So when I am out shooting wildlife and landscapes I can sll talk to you about your wedding or portrait needs and when you call you get a silly machine saying I am not in the office....out in nature my phone is on vibrate only but I will call you back as soon as I get the message that a call was missed and no one has to wait for a day or 2 to have a call returned, even if I am out of state shooting a city like Lexington Ky for a book publisher or at a destination wedding........

HAPPY HOLIDAYS and A VERY PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR FOR ALL!!!

Become my Fan on FaceBook.....& HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS and.....

2010-12-23T20:13:00.000-08:00

Become my fan on FaceBook, by cliking the banner to the right.
I will be posting specials for Portraits, Weddings, Senior Portraits and also for my Wall Art....that is strictly for my fans......

HAVE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A VERY PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR! ! ! ! !

Christmas Bazaar - Wichita Kansas 12-11-2010 - 9Am to 4Pm.....

2010-12-10T19:50:00.000-08:00

X-Mas Bazaar 1156 N Oliver Wichita Ks..... Saturday 12-11-2010 - Time 9am to 4Pm .... come out and look at all the fine X-mas gifts just waiting to be owned by you, including some great photos by me and I also have 4 copies of Wichita Visions, great book about Wichita.............and photos with Santa!!!

1156 N Oliver is the Victory Temple OutReach Ministries Church.....parking and Bazaar entrance in the rear of the Church!!!!

Come one.....Come All..........................

MPIX......Mpix PRO actually - Customer Service Praise!!!

2010-12-09T21:31:00.000-08:00

Well I made an order yesterday for prints from Mpix Pro......i had seen thousands of ads of Mpix in various mags and other places, but my website is hosted on SmugMug and they are partnered with Bay Photo......of course no one on Dgrin will ever have a bad thing to say about Bay, but that is of no consequence to me......i decided I wanted to keep my money as close to home as possible and since no one in
Wichita could meet my printing demands without paying hellacious penalties for super rush orders i decided to go to Mpix...they have a plant in Pittsburgh Ks.....so keeping money in state economy...is a good thing....so I posted the order...now not without a bit of frustration, which turned out to be my fault....I had used 2 different passwords on the site and then on roes the ordering system and it could not authenticate me....but it did not tell me where the problem was...just said it / we had a prob........so after about 3 hours of cursing all photo ordering systems called Roes...I emailed customer support then got up from computer to get a drink of diet ginger ale (c-dry only) and to my surprise I had a reply...so off we went, emails flying back and forth......and by the 3 email I got a reply telling me the prob was fixed...less than 30 minutes total and my order was uploading to them.....THAT IS CUSTOMER SERVICE.....
then today I get an email stating that my order is on it way...should arrive tomorrow - Friday......AGAIN THAT IS CUSTOMER SERVICE......GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE...

FREE DRIVE RECOVERY SOFTWARE TODAY ONLY 11-18-2010

2010-11-15T08:13:00.000-08:00

FREE HARD DRIVE AND MEMORY CARD DATA RECOVERY SOFTWARE...
IT IS FREE TODAY 11-18-2010 ONLY

CLIK MESSAGE ABOVE FOR FREE DATA RECOVERY SOFTWARE............

I Will be Selling Prints at Victory Temple Wichita Ks

2010-11-14T18:08:00.000-08:00

On December 11, Victory Temple, 1156 North Oliver Wichita Ks, will hold its X-mas Bazaar and I will have some of my work in the form of matted prints for sale.
They will be signed in an acid free paint that will not harm the photographs.

Short but wanted to let all know of the upcoming sale...............

Watch Carefully - Ebay Sellers

2010-11-13T11:39:00.000-08:00

Ebay is a fantastic place to purchase used camera or photographic equipment.....IF YOU ARE CAREFUL.....the novice photographer might get burned and when they do they always scream it was EBAYS fault.
It is not ebays fault at all...they simply host the auction you are bidding on and they place all kinds of guidelines that sellers are to adhere to...but that still doe not stop the unscrupulous seller from lying to you or asking dang near or actual retail price for used equipment.....so it truly is a buyers beware situation on Ebay.......
Just this morning I was looking to price some studio lighting.....my current set of 5 Paul C Buff white Lightning 5000's still work fantastic but I have been needing more power than they can produce a few more times than I like and renting is ok if I won't be doing it a lot...but there comes a time when I would rather just own...and now is that time......so I went looking for used Paul C Buff lighting, either White Lightning units or Alien Bees both are great units...Alien Bees being much lighter and smaller and I do a lot of location work......
So I found some of the upper end Alien Bees and the price was a mere $14 less than BRAND NEW from the factory and of course being used NO WARRANTY....I have sent the seller an email asking why so high priced and it is described as having dents and dings and scratches.......the sad thing is that some one new to photography will see this auction and not go to the Alien Bees website to investigate prices and such...then they will hear some other photog talk about the great deal they got from the manufacturer and be kicking them selves in the tail for the ebay purchase and they will tell people to not buy from ebay as they rip you off...again it is not ebays fault...it is the consumer for not investigating the items they want to buy first.............

Borrow Lenses is a great place to Rent from and they also have good sales on some items.....great fast service.........................

Where to RENT Photo Equipment

2010-10-29T21:34:00.000-07:00

People are always want to know to know where to rent Cameras, Lenses, tripods, and all sorts of photo equipment.....and I decided to help out my friends at Borrow Lenses a little.......Over on the right side of my blog is a section title Some of My Favorite Places and they have TOP BILLING.....sometimes they even have gear for sale at discounted pricing .....

Also if you live in an area that doesn't really cater to your photographic needs...Renting a new camera body, lens, tripod or whatever before purchasing is a fantastic way to see if the equipment you are interested in actually is what you want......That is WAAAAAAAAY better than buy from a dealer to only have to return it and wait for a refund.....after a while the retailers catch on and will no longer allow you to purchase and return stuff if you do it frequently...so RENT from BORROW LENSES.............

What if you need a Tilt Shift lens for a single job.....why buy that puppy when you can rent from BORROW LENSES and save some money and make more profit.....

Or you are going on a trip of a life time....maybe an African Safari....and you need a 600mm lens or a great zoom like a 200-400mm zoom lens but you have never needed one until now.....want to fork out several thousand dollars....if you don't think you will need it once a month from then on then RENT It.....Nikon 600mm for 4 weeks a little over $1300.00 as opposed to a purchase of approx.......$5K to 7.9K Or more to get the winning bid USED on Ebay......or new from approx $9800 to 14K.
BORROW LENSES is the way to go..............

JUST HAD ATT-U-VERSE INSTALLED - ALREADY UN HAPPY

2010-10-18T11:09:00.000-07:00

Just had ATT Uverse installed and the "Premises Tech"....decided all on his own to start closing my browser windows with out asking.....I lost over 500 tabs.....

This really sucks, as the windows did not show up in my HISTORY or in the recently closed windows or tabs.....so no effing recovery available.......

A Question was asked about HDR Photos.............

2010-10-13T18:25:00.001-07:00

Question - How many frames do you shoot for an HDR Photo???

Answer - It is not actually about the number of frames, but rather making sure to cover the whole complete DYNAMIC RANGE of the scene.

JUST A TAD ANNOYED ... at SOME FORUM POSTERS.......

2010-10-03T20:33:00.000-07:00

I am a member of SEVERAL different Photo forums and I lurk about a lot on lots of them that I am not a member of.....but that is neither here nor there.....

It is the frequency with which I am seeing what I deem idiot questions or questions from people just too damn lazy to do a little research.....makes me wonder how they dress themselves or decide what to eat .......you know it gets real annoying to see questions like.....I have the lowest end but newest camera and kit lens and I am thinking of buying a slightly better camera ....will my lens work on that camera......good gawd...goto www. your camera brand dot com and read the specs....
Why not just stick with the point and shoot you had and forget doing the DSLR thing as it really does require reading the manual and studying the art of photography....if you aren't willing to do a bit of research on if your kit lens will work on a better model then you are not willing to put forth the effort to learn the fundamentals of DSLR photography let alone the more advanced fundamentals of taking really good photos.......

.....I hope I did not upset anyone with this tirade but I saw this type of question on several forums tonight and all posted with in minutes of each other....it is like the poster found all of that camera brand forums and some that are for all camera buffs and just paste posted the same question across several boards......

ARRRRRRGH.........it just really makes me wonder how these people survive at all.............

Trash the Dress.....WHY???

2010-09-15T19:22:00.000-07:00

I really do not understand this fetish with destroying a thing that cost
so much money......especially one that could be sold........do these
women no longer want their daughters to get married in their
gowns any longer???

That was the thing not to long a go, a daughter wore her
mothers or grandmothers dress.....it was a sign of pride and love.......
I do not understand.....they are not hurting the hubby or soon to
be ex-hubby as he more than likely did not pay for it anyway...the
bride or her mother and father paid for it....it is them that are
getting hurt.
99% of the soon to be ex-hubbies love to see their soon to be ex's
do stuff like this rather than selling to help pay for the attorney.......................

Then again I am not a vindictive person.....that brings on loads
of bad Karma.

Leica and the Jews: A True Story about Freedom

2010-08-31T06:14:00.000-07:00

I did a cut and paste of this article from the forum: Dgrin - www.dgrin.com .......... Art Scott....................

I will probably get hammered for the title and probably this article ... but as an American I place a high value on freedom of speech.

This is a story well worth repeating ...

Gary

--- On Mon, 8/23/10, Greg Spadinger

Leica and the Jews

The Leica is the pioneer 35mm camera. It is a German product - precise, minimalist, and utterly efficient.

Behind its worldwide acceptance as a creative tool was a family-owned, socially oriented firm that, during the Nazi era, acted with uncommon grace, generosity and modesty. E. Leitz Inc., designer and manufacturer of Germany 's most famous photographic product, saved its Jews.

And Ernst Leitz II, the steely-eyed Protestant patriarch who headed the closely held firm as the Holocaust loomed across Europe , acted in such a way as to earn the title, "the photography industry's Schindler."

As soon as Adolf Hitler was named chancellor of Germany in 1933, Ernst Leitz II began receiving frantic calls from Jewish associates, asking for his help in getting them and their families out of the country. As Christians, Leitz and his family were immune to Nazi Germany's Nuremberg laws, which restricted the movement of Jews and limited their professional activities.

To help his Jewish workers and colleagues, Leitz quietly established what has become known among historians of the Holocaust as "the Leica Freedom Train," a covert means of allowing Jews to leave Germany in the guise of Leitz employees being assigned overseas.

Employees, retailers, family members, even friends of family members were "assigned" to Leitz sales offices in France , Britain , Hong Kong and the United States

Leitz's activities intensified after the Kristallnacht of November 1938, during which synagogues and Jewish shops were burned across Germany ...

Before long, German "employees" were disembarking from the ocean liner Bremen at a New York pier and making their way to the Manhattan office of Leitz Inc., where executives quickly found them jobs in the photographic industry.

Each new arrival had around his or her neck the symbol of freedom “ a new Leica.

The refugees were paid a stipend until they could find work. Out of this migration came designers, repair technicians, salespeople, marketers and writers for the photographic press.

Keeping the story quiet

The "Leica Freedom Train" was at its height in 1938 and early 1939, delivering groups of refugees to New York every few weeks. Then, with the invasion of Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, Germany closed its borders.

By that time, hundreds of endangered Jews had escaped to America , thanks to the Leitzes' efforts. How did Ernst Leitz II and his staff get away with it?

Leitz, Inc. was an internationally recognized brand that reflected credit on the newly resurgent Reich. The company produced range-finders and other optical systems for the German military. Also, the Nazi government desperately needed hard currency from abroad, and Leitz's single biggest market for optical goods was the United States .

Even so, members of the Leitz family and firm suffered for their good works. A top executive, Alfred Turk, was jailed for working to help Jews and freed only after the payment of a large bribe.

Leitz's daughter, Elsie Kuhn-Leitz, was imprisoned by the Gestapo after she was caught at the border, helping Jewish women cross into Switzerland . She eventually was freed but endured rough treatment in the course of questioning. She also fell under suspicion when she attempted to improve the living conditions of 700 to 800 Ukrainian slave laborers, all of them women, who had been assigned to work in the plant during the 1940s.

(After the war, Kuhn-Leitz received numerous honors for her humanitarian efforts, among them the Officier d'honneur des Palms Academic from France in 1965 and the Aristide Briand Medal from the European Academy in the 1970s.)

Why has no one told this story until now? According to the late Norman Lipton, a freelance writer and editor, the Leitz family wanted no publicity for its heroic efforts. Only after the last member of the Leitz family was dead did the "Leica Freedom Train" finally come to light.

It is now the subject of a book, "The Greatest Invention of the Leitz Family: The Leica Freedom Train," by Frank Dabba Smith, a California-born Rabbi currently living in England .

Thank you for reading the above, and if you feel inclined as I did to pass it along to others, please do so. It only takes a few minutes. Memories of the righteous should live on.

HappyFish Designs - - - - THANK YOU

2010-08-30T08:19:00.000-07:00

Having come from the film era, I have been looking for an image processor to process my images from portraits and weddings......I found wedding processors but no one wanted to deal with small amounts of image files (12-75)...then I saw a forum post giving Praise to HappyFish Designs .......so I shot them an email , well several emails, asking all sorts of questions...then I needed to find a FTP transfer software and sent them files and still there was more dialogue and phone calls from them......They called me to ask more questions and also sent more emails.....it was they that wanted to make sure they did things to satisfy me.....it is hard to find a company of any sort that will go the least bit out of their way for the client but Karen and Chad went an extra 1000 miles for me it seems....
They are great to work with...I have my processor...I can now concentrate on shooting and not proofing........OH YEAH.....

If you prefer shooting over spending hours glued to a computer monitor then give HappyFish Designs a look over ( http://www.happyfish.com ) ......Karen and Chad are great to work with.................. The website is geared more towards album design...but email them with your questions and concerns .................

NON PHOTO RELATED BUT STIULL WORTH THE READ AVD THINK ABOUT

2010-08-26T11:43:00.000-07:00

This is a cut and paste from an email sent to me by a friend of mine.

One Light Bulb at a Time

Come on - Let's do it!

A physics teacher in high school, once told the students that while one grasshopper on the railroad tracks wouldn't slow a train very much, a billion of them would. With that thought in mind, read the following, obviously written by a good American.

Good idea .. . one light bulb at a time . . . .

Check this out . I can verify this because I was in Lowes the other day for some reason and just for the heck of it I was looking at the hose attachments . They were all made in China . The next day I was in Ace Hardware and just for the heck of it I checked the hose attachments there. They were made in USA . Start looking.

In our current economic situation, every little thing we buy or do affects someone else - even their job . So, after reading this email, I think this lady is on the right track . Let's get behind her!

My grandson likes Hershey's candy . I noticed, though, that it is marked made in Mexico now... I do not buy it any more. My favorite toothpaste Colgate is made in Mexico ... now I have switched to Crest. You have to read the labels on everything ..

This past weekend I was at Kroger. I needed 60 W light bulbs and Bounce dryer sheets . I was in the light bulb aisle, and right next to the GE brand I normally buy was an off-brand labeled, "Everyday Value ... " I picked up both types of bulbs and compared the stats - they were the same except for the price .. The GE bulbs were more money than the Everyday Value brand but the thing that surprised me the most was the fact that GE was made in MEXICO and the Everyday Value brand was made in - get ready for this - the USA in a company in Cleveland , Ohio .

So throw out the myth that you cannot find products you use every day that are made right here ..

So on to another aisle - Bounce Dryer Sheets... yep, you guessed it, bounce cost more money and is made in Canada . The Everyday Value brand was less money and MADE IN THE USA ! I did laundry yesterday and the dryer sheets performed just like the Bounce Free I have been using
for years and at almost half the price!

My challenge to you is to start reading the labels when you shop for everyday things and see what you can find that is made in the USA - the job you save may be your own or your neighbors!

If you accept the challenge, pass this on to others in your address book so we can all start buying American, one light bulb at a time! Stop buying from overseas companies!

(We should have awakened a decade ago...)

Let's get with the program... help our fellow Americans keep their jobs and create more jobs here in the U . S . A..

I Passed this on... will you?

IN GOD WE TRUST

Acid Free Paint Pens for Signing Photos

2010-08-25T23:02:00.000-07:00

A few weeks back I posted a short blog on signing photos with a Acid free Paint marker pen by Sanford ....the Sharpie Company.........well I have found that my art store now carries
extra fine acid free archival paint pens by Pilot........ I love Pilot pens for writing...so i bought 2 of these paint markers.....1 silver and 1 gold....for the small price of $3.49 each + tax........that was 1/4 of what I paid for my last acid free paint markers and they weren't this fine........
These will write on all sorts of surfaces........check out this link by CLICKING HERE ......

Have a great week............

Shooting Raw as Insurance against CopyRight infringement

2010-08-25T11:23:00.000-07:00

There is an absolutely astonisihing amount of people that shoot only jpg's and then they are asking on various forums how to stop theft of their images from their websites and the other forums they love to post on....and the answer is........YOU CAN"T........if you can see it on your computer screen it can be stolen.....It is just a fact of in the age of the internet and the WWW................

Question pop up all the time like: Can i sue so and so for copyright infrinment or for using without permission???? the answer is yes...but is most like going to be a huge waste of your money, as the theif will lie and say they did not know it it was stealing they had been told anything on the net is fair game...fair use and anyone can use anything they want anythingme they want and I'll have the web guy remove it and promise never to do it again.......and the thief willnot even cross his fingers as we were taught to do if you did not intend to keep your word........
The judge will rule in your favor but only require the thief to remove your images...no cash award ...not even to pay for your lawyer........if you can prove the image(s) is yours........
Since all camera can produce a jpg image it could be hard..especially if the thief has a piece of software that allows him to change the data in the exif portion of the jpg image.......all he needs to change is the date the image was taken........now prove it is yours.............

Did you register your image with the US Copyright Office (or the copyright office in your country), if not then the battle could bode ill for you..........

SO....................................................................................

shoot raw.......do not want to process your images, you're perfectly happy with them as camera generated jpgs....that is cool then shoot raw + jpg and use the camera generated jpg for what ever you do with your images.................

I shoot raw+jpg (small) for quick sorting of images, especially from weddings.....I sort using windows photo viewer.........but I do process the raw files and then delete the jpgs that the camera made........I can afford to shoot raw+jpg becasue I have more than 1 memory card...they go on sale and I buy 2 or 3 or more....right now I won 12 - 8gb Transcend cards....they have been as good for me as Lexar and SanDisk, both of which I have owned and used.....Transcend is quite a bit less expensive and just a reliable..........

Anyway the bottom line is the raw file can be insurance against image theft as it cannot be uploaded or viewed on online forums or galleries...it can be attached to emails or transferred by ftp.....I use FTP to transfer my raw files to my image processor in Phoenix Az........HappyFish.com.......then they transfer my finished files back to me..........
I never let anyone have my orignal files I transfer copies.........................

RAW files can be PROOF of OWNERSHIP in court as to who really owns and image.........

BlueGrass Visions - The Lexington Ky. Project

2010-08-04T10:50:00.001-07:00

Well I just received notification that the BlueGrass Visions book has been printed and the contributor copies will be arriving very soon......can't wait to see which ones of mine are in it.......Actually I am waiting on the email that has the contact sheet of published photos to add to my portfolio........and the check of course. LOL....LOL...LOL... :-}}

How to be a GOOD PHOTO ASSISTANT

2010-07-29T11:41:00.000-07:00

How to be a GOOD PHOTO ASSISTANT ......................................

The title says it all......I read this great article on being a good PHOTO assistant by photographer / blogger Scott Bourne ......Here is the Link to his Article http://tinyurl.com/25pzpbs If you know anyone that is wanting to be an assistant print the article out and give it to them or at least email them the link to the article.................

Post Processing of Digital Images

2010-07-26T10:07:00.000-07:00

I started in Professional Photography a little over 30 yrs ago.....At that time there were 4 or 5 Professional labs (plus a plethora of 1 hr labs) here. i tried each Pro lab out with a roll of film and decided on the Quality of work, customer service, price, & if they were open on Saturday mornings as to who got my business..........so now I was able to shoot, put my film in an envelope with instructions as to what I wanted, slip thru a mail slot in the building and go pick up in 3 or 4 days.......Life was good I could concentrate on shooting and honing my craft.........

Digital came and I was with a processing lab...all the labs still printed but as to the actual Processing of the image, was left upto the photographer.......that means new computer, or at least a better than low end computer, software like photoshop or painter or some other processing software...which is now cutting into my shooting time or sleeping time :-}} ........so I was on the search for a processor that I could trust to turn my images into wonderful files for printing.......well the search literally took a few years.......basically because there did not seem to be any one doing that work, secondly because when I did find a random person claiming to be a professional processor they charged more for processing than I charged to shoot a wedding.........so I was backed into a corner.....it was not that I did not want ot learn to use photoshop but simply a time issue for me.......I like to work in photoshop but just like my 4x5 darkroom in the past, i wanted to do my fine art work myself and leave the weddings and portraits to others.........so I searched on I started seeing a few processing companies pop up here and there but still none that fit the bill with me......mostly because they had minimum quantity for wedding images and they would not mess with fewer images, so no portrait processing....so I searched on............then I found a mention of a company Called HAPPY FISH Professional Album Design and Post Processing ........ Looks promising.....sent an inquiry, got a very profession and swift reply......I asked questions that were actually answered on the the home page, but not once was a scolded for not reading the website......I was politely and professionally given answers and they have pricing set from 0 (yes zero) image on up.........so you can send them 1 image to run thru Lightroom or several hundred or more..........pricing is very good I believe...as I write this I am FTP'ing almost 400 images to be processed............

Life may be great once again........if I can concentrate on the shooting and let Happy Fish be my processor and not have to double or triple my prices just to pay the processing........

My FTP service is FileZilla an open source FTP software.....seems to work good but it is slow...or it could be the amount of stuff open and running at same time that is slowing it down........

I am anxious to see Happy Fish's results with my files..........

TRIPOD STABILITY

2010-07-21T06:45:00.000-07:00

I use a Giottos Tripod that has a removable / repositionable center column.....so I need extra stability to keep the cam from shaking during exposures when I have the center column in a weird angle.....

I get that extra stability from a grocery bag.....before I go any farther...You can carry expensive "sandbags" to fill with sand, dirt , rocks or whatever to get more weight to stabilize the tripod and center column......but why spend $15 - $50 for a specialty item When at your local Walmart or Grocery Store yu can get a "green" recyclable reusable grocery bag for the huge price of 99¢ to $1.99......that is all you need and they fold up very small also and do not weigh hardly anything and are machine washable (at least all that I have had are)........I started useing them by accident.....I was out shooting flowers and got my center column in about a 45° angle......and needed a bit more stability due to the wind.......looking in my car there was the grocery bag....it has loop handles....what the hey......it worked....it was dirt cheap and it serves multi purposes.....groceries and photography.

Have a great week / weekend.......Keep Shooting.......................

Garage / Yard Sell

2010-07-19T21:27:00.000-07:00

Garage Sale: Thur-Sat 2738 S Yellowstone Court ....Pro Photo packs/bags, Lots of CD's, books & and non photo related items also...juicer, food processor.....Ice Packs...not blue ice but Medical type: have a special foam in them...man are they great and some small foam chests.........lots more.....

I Really Really Hate Having MY Eyes Dilated............

2010-07-14T17:50:00.000-07:00

I Really Really Hate Having MY Eyes Dilated............well it is not so mujch ahving the dilated but having to drive afterwards.......every year I beg for an early morning appointment and every year
I told there are none available.......my reasoning... the Dr. office is on east side of town.....I live on west side........going to Dr. Office wit ht he rising sun beaming into your eyes (prior to dilation) is not a real problem....I have dark sunglasses.............HOWEVER driving home after dilarion and driving into the yello/orange ball of light in the western sky is total hell.......I do mean total hell......a total of 4 pairs of sunglasses just so I could try to see and of all the stupid idotic stuff to run into (not actually run into as in crash) this idiot in a black car had a silver sunshde covering his rear window and the sun was reflecting off it directly into my eyes.......2 police....yes 2....1 city and 1 state passed right by him and did not even look his way......it was shift change time and the hiway was packed, so I could not pass this idiot at all.....now I sit in the dark with lighter sunglasses on as the brightness of this screen is killing my head.....I already had a headache from the drive from the Dr.s office but this is adding to it..........

Well the visit to the Dr. was a success, I guess.......he was all compliments on my check up.....he siad I had better eyes than a lot of his normal patients ......by normal he was refering to non diabetic patients........so my eyes were really really really good since I have had diabetes for around 12 yrs now......so I can handle a little headache, knowing that the diabetes has not started damaging my eyesight as of now.......which is good since I am a photographer................

Something a few will find useful.........especially if you are selling online

2010-07-08T10:46:00.000-07:00

Something a few will find useful...the dollar sign is on your keyboard right above the number four....so for cents where do you go.............. well here are the "codes" for cents, euros and pounds sterling..... alt + 0162 (cents) alt + 0163 (pound sterling) ....alt + 0128 (euros) .

I know I have had to keep searching the internet for how to make these symbols several times......so i just thought I would share......

Have a great weekend,

I know it is only Thursday...............

Wet 4th

2010-07-04T06:53:00.001-07:00

Glad I did not go to Corpus Christi for this weekend.....rainy, with storms from hurricane....does not add upto good coffee table book photos about city..........Oh WELL soon tho...................

Signing Your Photographic Art Work

2010-06-28T16:21:00.000-07:00

As photographers each photograph should be considered as works of Art and treated as such.
I am talking today about the signing of your photos so that later on down the road the owner or new owners
of that art work know who created it. So many of us have seen the entertainer slapping down the autograph on and 8x10 glossy at a signing event, whether a concert or sci-fi convention or book signing, and their weapon of choice: THE SHARPIE LAUNDRY MARKER.....however the ink inside a Sharpie is loaded with acid that will deteriorate your art works over a period of time........so why waste the time creating a great piece of art only to kill its value down the road with ink containing acid...........
Many years ago I was signing my photos with sharpies also, until I was in an art store and asked one of the workers, that turned out to be an artists herself, what the store carried as I could not find my beloved gold sharpies any longer at wally world or kay mart......and I got a lecture on why I should never sign a work of art with an acid laden pen......so I was introduced to the acid free paint pen by Sanford.....Tha's right the Sharpie company makes an acid free paint marker that really workd great....do read the instructions and do keep the pen inverted with paint tip up.......it will leak if you don't, also do not try to clean the paint tip with a Kleenex like it was a dirty ball point the tip will come out and the seal is ruined and it will work but not like it should or like yiou want it too.
They are kinda pricy ......around $12.00 per pen.....Gold or Silver and you will not find them, or I have not at least, at Hobby Lobby, Michaels or walmart, kamart, office max or depot, sams club........I have onoy found them at Artists supply houses & Blue Print companies,,,,,,,but they carry small amounts of the best of artist supplies also................

As to where to sign the photo itself......I use a rule of thumb so to speak of approx 1 to 1.5 inches from the bottom of the print and the same distance from the right side of the print......that way the print can be matted and framed and my signature is still visible........if I sign the mat I still sign the print.....because the mat can be changed due to decorating tastes of the owner and the signature on the print will still be there......if you only sign the mat and someone changes the mat your signature is gone........all © copyright statements should be on the back.....I now buy lables with the statement on them....again get a label that is acid free......a lot of the address companies will have the acid free labels and yes they are a bit more expensive........but they will stick to 99.9% of all materials used for Photo production, wood, glass, ceramic, metal etc etc..............

Hope this has helped a few of you.

Hiring a Photographer.......Why we charge what we do

2010-06-16T21:26:00.000-07:00

So you're looking for a photographer and you sign up for one of the many websites that you can type in yo9ur needs and it gets emailed to thousands of photographers.............across the world.........and the "bids" start trickling in...........so right off the bat you start declining all the idiots that are posting prices of $750.00 and up........You thingk to yourself...I told them it was only a small wedding with only a few close familoy and friends...maybe 50 people......what is up with you high priced photographers.....damn uncle sid said he'd do it for free with his new Canon S90....and most of the pros use canon don't they...........but the over a thousand dollar offers just keep rolling in.............and you keep declining.......here is why those "high" offers are as they are:
using myself as an example.....I have always done my work with the smallest amount of equipment possible....not the cheapest equipment but the least amount....like this:
2- nikon bodies (D300) - new   ~$1900.00 each
1-70-200f2.8 lens -                  ~$1800.00
1-24-70 f2.8 lens-                     ~$1800.00
2 - flash units                               ~$500.00 each
Flash bracket        ~$200.00
Memory Cards (not the cheapes nor the most expensive....middle of the road - ~$80.00 / 8gb card X3
Tripod / w head    ~$375.00 on the low end that could actually reach $1500
                                                         for line products......but I use what I like not what the media
tells me I should use..............
Camera bag / case for security not just to carry    $250.00

Equipment insurance for Replacement Value    ~$850.00 / yr
Liability, personal injury insurance usually sold in increments of $1million ~$750.00 / yr

Indeminty insurance                                        ~$200.00/yr

Computer: run of the mill PC                           ~$600.00
Adobe Photoshop                                             $700.00 / download
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom                              $300.00 / download
Decent 22" Monitor                                            ~$300.00
Monitor Calibrator --decent not high or low         ~$250.00
Vehicle - must be totally reliable .....                            Min. $5000.00
Car insurance                                                    Liability Only $300/6mo...so X2
_________________________________________________________________________________
Total for the above is...............................................$19015.00 .....if I did my math correctly
and this is with out the rest of what we have to pay for:

Vehicle Maintaince ..........................Hmmmmmmmm............$$$$$
Accountants
Tax Preparers
Equipment maintenance (cameras must be periodiaclly cleaned and calibrated especially digital cameras, computers must be maintained with virus protection and cleaned also or they stop working)
assistants and 2nd shooters
insurance on the assistants and 2nd shooters...............
Websites for online portfolios and for clients to be able to make orders for prints from the comfort of YOUR OWN HOME.............
Weekly or Daily computer back ups to a min of 3 hardrives in at least two off location sites.....in case of total computer crash or main harddrive failure...without the back ups your precious memories could be lost for ever.....................
And yet you grumble and complain about spending a little money for what should be the most important day of YOUR NEW LIVES together.........but yet uncle sid shoots your wedding cuts off heads and most of the pics are too dark or too light (under and over exposed) and are printed at one of the Marts and in 6 months the colors start to shift and your wonderful golden tan is now turing a weird magenta color ........but we still love uncle sid he tried........but if this had happened to a hired photog well then we'd be on the phone with an attorney to sue the pants of that Photogrpaher that ruined our memories.................

Folks there is a reason that we Photographers charge $1500.00 and up for a days work.......for every hour I shoot I spend a lot more in front of the computer processing YOUR MEMORIES 1 image at a time (a wedding usually takes around 40 hours to properly process from raw file to finished jpeg or tiff)......unlike so and so MART that will take a memory card and load it into the printer that is already set to process and print with presets that are supposed to make decent prints...not great prints........I only use the best processor Printer, the same lab that Printed my film photos and still does my film when i shoot film today........their prints will last upwards of over 100 yrs and then who is gonna care if your wonderful golden tan is turning a little magenta...............unfortunately we cannot sit in front of the computer and do a straight 40 hours on your wedding and then hope another client comes along we must be ready to spend a few hours every day shooting portraits, commercial shoots: whether shooting food for a restaurant or toys or clothes for a local manufacturer or go to another town and shoot the city for a book publisher that saw your work on your website....the camera must keep clicking to keep us even with our bills.................
Hope this helps to explain why we must charge the fees we charge and there are incidentals I have left out............like suits to wear to YOUR wedding.............

Just Realized.............

2010-06-04T20:48:00.001-07:00

Just realized that i forgot to upload a ton of photos from the Lex.
project of the Interior of Castle Post....well those won't get into
the book.....damn but I will upload them soon to the Gallery

Lexington Project Gallery Now Open to the Public

2010-06-04T16:31:00.000-07:00

I have no idea yet how many photos were used by the publishing company but I have opened up the Gallery to the General Public for viewing and if one wants to purchase a photo please contact me by email with Lexington Project as the subject with photo title or number and the print size wanted and I will with in 72 hours send a reply with price including shipping.

Here is the link to the Lexington Project Gallery............ http://tiny.cc/nqrlz if it is not clikable then copy and paste it into your browser window.

Thanks for all the views.

Cd's

2010-06-01T19:04:00.001-07:00

FINALLY ripping all of my cd's to hard drive.....getting ready for a sale....in the near future.

I have a problem with FORUMS......

2010-05-31T19:14:00.000-07:00

I have a problem with Forums......the photographic type......of which I am a member of several.....
My problems is this.....someone asks for help.........and rather than answer the question asked in a cheerful helpful manner one of the mods comes along and tells the person to follow the links in their signature....in a snotty uppity way.....leaving the newcomer feeling like .......well shit..................then someone comes along and answers the question and even says this or that may not work everytime but it is the way they (the new post answerer) has done it for a long time and it works for them...............then another snotty member of the paid kind comes along to say that the helpful poster lied or what they said was untrue......and gets called on it........and instead of appologizing the paid snot replies that this is how we prefer it to be done.................

Why can't mods and the paid help be just that helpful and actually answer the questions that are asked??
99.9999999% of the time, by the time they get done telling a questioner to look in their links which are not actually clear and precise to the questioners question they, the mod or paid help, could ahve with less key strokes and time actually answered the question ....................

I just do not understgand this mentallity.......if you do not like being asked the same question over and over again.....get off the supposedly helpful, supposedly education and supposedly friendly forums and go somewhere that likes the snotty uppity sort of mentality...................

Lexington Ky Project Finished: Installment 4 - FINALE

2010-05-29T21:45:00.000-07:00

Cloudy skies were most prevalent....early morning it was one flat ugly dark grey cloud over the whole of the part of Ky. that I ventured into......when the clouds would separate I could include them in the shots.....more down town financial district.......

As I was aimlessly driving up and down streets, I came across something I found to be quite cool........
TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY...........I had know idea that such a plce existed.......I do know that
Transylvania is the largest district in Romania.......so yes it is a very real place...........so a few of Transylvania University ......................

Haupt Hall

Morrison Hall

A gentleman I kept running into in various parts of town.....it was of those incidents that all of a sudden you go
what is going on with this........His name I found out is Benjamin Bond a street poet or as he like to be called:
The Poet Laurette of the Streets.............

Benjamin Bond : Poet Laurette of the Streets

He was quite nice and never asked for money or anything like I am used to with street people........like I said he turned up all over town every day I was there........

Big Blue is the Tallest building in Lexington and yes i took quite a few shots of it.....according to its building manager, Nick Schwendeman,. it was 90+ occupied ......which is real good in this economy......

Nick is a very nice and tolerant man, he took time out of his extremely busy schedule to let me look over Lexington from various floors and rooms in this very large building.......I felt as if he was showing the rooms and views just as he would if I went there to lease an office from him.....and when the first day was way to foggy for good shooting he did not hesitate to let me back in the next day....which was my last day......

Big Blue

the above photo was taken just down the street from Transylvania U. and the Carnegie Library shown below.

Gratz Park

A shot thru the Gratz Park gate looking at Morrison Hall at Transylvania U....photo taken off the back steps of the Carnegie Library............statues and fountain in Gratz Park.....

A Fountain Dedicated to Youth

This statue and fountain were gifted by James Allen to the Children of Lexington in 1933............

A couple of old houses from Gratz Park of no important significance ......just cool looking

more views of downtown including a Big Blue........ bewing the most promenent building it is hard to keep it out of the shots :-}}

The Cheapside Bar at the corner of CheapSide and Short street.....time for a tiny tale.....a tale of why this is called CheapSide......it was during the slaving days that this block got its name.....The story is told to be true........this is where all the run down, worn out and thought to be no good slaves were brought to be sold or traded.........Sold on the or at the Cheapside.....a very sad but true story..........and no the drinks and food are not on the cheap side :-} but it is a place for great food and entertainment, I am told.

Just down from the Cheapside and Cheap Street is this very nice building....

269 W. Main Street....shot from the Big Blue Parking Garage......................

A bit farther west.................

Hilliyard Lyons Offices

directly across the street from the parking garage is the Lexington Historical Center housed in the Old Fayette County Courthouse ........just wished there had not so dang much street repair going on.......

Old Fayette /county Courthouse / Lexington Historical Center

Just a short ways back to the north of downtown......

CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL EPISCOPAL DIOCESE

CHRIST CHURCH GARDEN

more cloud reflections in Big Blue.................

Now we are headed out along the Kentucky River and a few shots of the Shaker Village and a snap of the Dixie Bell Paddle Wheel Boat

Muddy Kentucky River and cliffs

The Dixie Bell

An ornate Shaker built dry wall hand laid Fence outdoor exhibit ........

A few Shaker Buildings and Farm implements below......Buildings were quite large and plain........

Childrens entertainment at Shaker Village......

Winding road back to Lexington............

No where to pull over so I shot this thru the windshield while driving

The Lexington and University of Kentucky Arboretum..........

Entranced to the University of Kentucky.....

Shops in the Chevy-Chase District..............

Worlds Apart

Christoper Michael Fine Art Home Furnishings

A look down Chevy Chase

Barney Millers

A cool looking entrance.......for a home theater establishment........this entrance is waaaaaay cooler than their website store front photo..................

Lexington's oldest working Firehouse........Fire house number 4.......the Voght Reel House.........

Capt. Samuelson and the newest driver

Fire Fighter / Paramedic A.T. Newman

I almost forgot.....what fire House #4 is called:

Yes it is supposed to be Haunted.....the Captain would not confirm or deny the allegations.....but take a closer look at the stairway detail........Could That be the Phantom of Engine Company #4????????

Lexington City Library and Veterans park area.......................

Lexington Public Library

A really Bicycle Rack

8:37:58 on 5-10-2010

15:37:09 on 5-10-2010

The above 2 photos are showing the rotation of the earth beneath the Pendulum ........ It is an Earth Rotational Pendulum.........There is no motor to swing the cable and it has been in place for several years and has never stopped swinging.........................

Part of the "I Read Therefore I................" campaign of the Public Library

Random shots from around Lexington.........................

Could that mark have been left behind from an Alien Visitation ????

Blue Rising...........

Tully......

Tully leaving ...........

Another Reflection

Clock Shop on Short Street

SUNSET ON CENTRAL CHRISTIAN CHURCH

Cool Mod Cow Revisited

Shriners Hospital

JAMES HARDYMON BUILDING

A few Areial Shots of Lexington: shot from the 31st floor east balcony

of Big Blue

University of Kentucky Library and Dorms

then the fog rolled in

Chevy - Chase thru the Fog..

Yassie B.

The Sleep Inn front desk clerk that greated me nearly every morning that I was in Lexington.....

John the Manager at Sleep Inn.....a very personable gentleman

well that is it for Lexington Kentucky.......Hope you enjoyed the photos and the story.....not much of a story but then I am not a writer..........my name is Arthur...but an Author I am not........ :-}}

Oh damn I alsmost forgot I did say that my trip was not 100% successful at keeping with the no horse photos......here is the one that dropped me to under 100% on my mission...................

Now I am done with the Story of my Assigment to Lexington Ky and to shoot the city but NO HORSES......Hmmm,,,,,,,,,...........too cute not to shoot......errrrrr....Photograph..........

THE END!!!!

Lexington Ky Project Finished: Installment 3

2010-05-26T21:36:00.000-07:00

this is the 3rd installment of my Lexington NO HORSE assignment..........As stated earlier I was not 100% effective at this......but here we go into another installment of what I found..........
so my first offereing is the Horse Cemetery......no nothing like the Pet Semetery we all read.....this is a very nice Memorial called: "Hamburg Place Horse Cemetary" ........

I was told that at one time it was larger but with Sir Barton (the street between the Memorial & the house seen in this photo) being enlarged and Walmart on the other side it was shrunk from its orignal asize and some of the graves were moved..............

Another hand laid dry wall rock fence but much more modern in style..............

Is this Lexington Ky or New York City?????

Damn forgot to straighten the street!!!!! oh well a tilted courthouse....Kinda indictive of our Govt right now so what the heck.......................Fayette County District Courts

Fayette County District Courts..........A little more level........

This was one very Friendly bar..........Molly Brooks Irish Bar......

the inside decor was quite quaint ................

A couple of friends celebrating Mothers Day at Molly Brooks'.......................

Historic Fayette Building....Now Gallery B 2

Exhibition and Cloud reflections.............

I like reflections so there are going to be a few throughout................

What a name............Fifth Third Bank.........

Window shoppers at Gallery B 2

Some of lexington's Finest headed for a job...............

Bar, shop and spooky house................

I did notice something I thought was quite odd.....the name of the LLC and a whole string of numbers were posted on every small business in one of their windows.....think it was to help make sure the licensing was upto date.......but do not know for sure................

A cool looking little eatery..............

This not as spooky in photos as in person.............

Night street scenes.....downtown Lexington.................

Then a couple of impromptu portraits...............

Club scene at Natasha's

Prefab Rehab rockin' Natasha's

A gathering of good friends.....outside Natasha's............

My last photo for tonight.....The newly remodeled Kentucky Theater (movie theater)...and some very foreboding clouds.....

Good Night........more to come this Memorial Weekend........................

Hopefully

2010-05-25T21:19:00.001-07:00

Hopefully new Lexington installment tomorrow........

2010-05-22T14:43:00.000-07:00

I added dialogue to both installment 1 and 2....so now there is a bit of a story to go with the photos......

Lexington Ky Project Finished: Installment 2

2010-05-19T18:22:00.000-07:00

Now back into Lexington after shooting the Pisgah Presbyterian Church and it is around dinner time....between 7 and 8PM......and i forgot my insulin....so back to the hotel......and I see this:
How about a real Mod Cow

I whip into a drive way and jump out of the trooper and shootr like a mad man....before it can run off and hide.....then I realize..........it is not going anywhere..........actually I stood laughing my arse off for a few minutes as I am in the Horse Capital of the World and I see a Hippie Cow Statue........the Gate says Ashland Farm..delivery entrance......a few cars go by and look at me like I am crazy with camera in hand shooting a Hippie Cow Statue.......assignment was NO HORSES........so it fits .......RIGHT.....Oh yeah

Well I made a nother turn and ran into this.....
Mount Vernon Baptist Church

Detail of Church Window

Hand Laid Dry Wall Fence (no motar used to hold together)

Close up Detail of the Fence

.I wasn't lost by any means i just started taking turns at will to see what I could find......you know hidden treasures...sort of............

one night I decided I wanted to do the night life shots and also some "Aerial" shots of the cith lights so I went to the 360 club.....atop one of the financial centers towers.....the shooting was horrific....but it was the only place for what I wanted.....the music was so loud and the club so small that everything seemed to vibrate from the music....the windows, the tables and me and my camera......all the windows had terrible reflections in them and screens on the inside.....so that was a bust...time to leave........so I I left the 360 club I spy this....
INTERLUDE

almost forgot.....no good city shots...but a couple of fireplace shots.......crystals for fuel......
Very Hot Gems

the next evening I saw a peculiar cloud.....it looked as if the man in the clouds was really pissed off.....i wound up driving for about 5-8 miles thru town to get a clear shot.....but it was still there....after a few photos it closed up and was gone........but it waited for me to get to a place with a clear view.....Thank you.... man in the cloud
Ominous Cloud.........................Face

an evening walk that was being quite unproductive....yep the might of no goood aerial shots from 'Club 360.....I noticed this unusual man hole cover.......
Iron Work IN Brick

and then I looked up and saw this......................
Cool Mural

Installment 3 coming soon.........................this time I will try to put dialogue with photos but that might mean fewer photos, as I am a very slow typist and then I make tons of mistakes.....thank God for the spell checker.....but even it is not perfect.....updates to 1st and 2nd installed done on Saturday May 22, 2010.........

Lexington Ky Project Finished: Installment 1

2010-05-18T16:30:00.000-07:00

Well I am back in Wichita from Lexington Ky........it was a very intersting trip to an area I had no idea about except that Lexington is the Horse Capital of the World. That is right the Horse Capital of the World.....with farms ranging from a scant few acres to farms of tens of thousands of acres with horses worth very little to well into the millions each......but my assignment was to NOT SHOOT THE HORSES or anything associated with the horses.........Hmmmmmmmm.........then what do I shoot.......Assignment the City of Lexington......Oh yeah the city.....that would be buildings and people and anything but horses.........OK.....

My first stop was the Lexing National Guard Armory....I was disappointed that there was nothing to see.....of course armory can mean small arms....rifles, pistols and handheld rocket rockets and launchers...... but I was actually on my way to a church and cemetary built shortly after the Revolution........

1st the National Guard Armory:

My second stop was the aviation Museum......a lot to see here and as all aviation museums it is very cramped......to the gills so to speak.............my hosts / guides were very helpful and nice.....
The Aviation Museum:

1978 replical of the 1908 Sellers Quadplane:

A WACO RNF:

A couple of 'copters:

MY GUIDES THRU THE MUSEUM: L-R: RICHARD WOOD, BOB COLE, TIM SMITH & DON SPROULE:

First time to see an Air Force Plane with a Tail Hook :-}}

Really think these guys were waaaaay off course, No Naval Installation any where near Lexington: Navy Seahawk.

Had to do a little googling and finally found the H.E. "TEX" SUTTOR website and the history of the company......but no reference to the welcome sign on the door"Welcome to Air Horse 1".......but I will be contacting them for an explanation.........One of the oldest and largest equine forwarding companies in the world.......the rates are sliding depending on how many horses will fly.....id do not believe that all have to be from same stable or owner but a single horse rund approx $30K for a one way flaight in the US.....it can drop to as little as 3K if near a full load......they get special privileges to take off more gradual and to have a much longer landing approach so the horses are not subjected to the quick take off and landings that people are.....they also have caretakers riding with the horses to help keep them calm and refreshed with hay and food and water............
H.E. "TEX" Suttor's Air Horse 1:

One of the finest Equine Forwarding Companies in the World

One my way to the Pisgah Presbyterian Church I passed this majestic entrance to a horse farm.......

Entrance to Shadwell Farm:

and this smaller farm which looked really nice............

I liked the clouds so I shot this small Kentucky Farm:

As I came down the road toward Pisgah Presbyterian Church I see this castle ahead of me....so I make a hard right turn and look in amazment.......this thing is Huuuuuge!!!

Castle Post.....Yes this is a very large solid rock castle just out side Lexington:

I actually went back so many times to shoot Castle Post That a State Trooper pulled up behind me one evening to ask why I was spending so much time there and then he saw the window sticker "Help Stop Crime: SHOOT BACK" .... that sparked another conversation and he actually helped me carry equipment to and from my Trooper............I must say no police officer gave me any problems about shooting anything.....the above mentioned trooper got into asking opinons on camera's and what I meant by sweet light.......and as I told him that majick time of day is really subjective to the photog.....some like the sun to show some like it to be beyond horizon.......I was looking for special clouds and lighting on the Castle....so I needed the sun a bit higher in the clouds..........

I finally arrived at the Church......pretty much like I expected....small and made of stone.....of course this was my first upclose look at the Dry Wall Fences of Ky..........
PISGAH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH Founded 1784:

Not the oldest grave I am sure.......

Another view of the Church:

I was running late to my own schedule so I did not get to scour the cemetery like I would have liked to but i shot a couple of headstones to show it was just barely post American Revolution when it was built and used.
On my way back into town i see this very cool mailbox.....of course my heart twinges as it makes me miss my own lab Sadie even more.........

Just liked this mail box:

the farm the mailbox lived at.....for some reason I thought it might have been FishBack Farm.....then I spotted the sign:
Trackside Farm:

and was wondering if there was a race track near by.....but then i bounced across this:
The Track At the Side of the Farm:

Well my assignment was to NOT shoot horses or horse stuff.....well so far not 100% on "track"
but I am close.....gotta have a bit of horsey stuff......more to come..............

This is the end of most of my 1st days shooting around Lexington.....and I know I should be shot as I posted images and no real story.............

There is soooo much more to Lexington Ky than Horses.....

2010-05-08T14:54:00.000-07:00

There is soooo much more to Lexington Ky than Horses.....yes there is......
Pisgah Presbyterian Church built late 1780's .....still in use today

More to come with pics.....it is Saturday night and I must hit a few music hot spots.....

So look for Edits to this post for photos and such.........

2010-05-07T21:55:00.000-07:00

Arrived in Lexington and got a few shots....supposed to rain tonight....much like Ks.......great fluffy clouds and nice light...then wham....freaking clear sky and terrible harsh light.....not going to shoot horses for the art director....but will need to shoot horse themed stuff....this is the horse capital of the world.....there is even a Medieval castle here.....and stuff going back to the revolution.......gonna stay thru wednesday and head back to Witchi ta.......

Shooting Lexington Ky

2010-05-05T22:24:00.000-07:00

Heading to Lexington Ky this morning around 8AM. Would have liked leaving a lot earlier but I did not know my Labrador was out of some serious medication for her cancer.....so had to delay until the vet opens to get prescription.
Why Lexington Ky.......Because I have a chance to shoot for CityScapes Books again. Did not want to turn it down......weather should be very nice. Will post pics of the Journey as it unfolds if I have time....as I must my pix in the Art Directors hands no later than 5-15-2010......so will shoot all day and part of the evening and then process all I can by Midnight and then be up around 5Am to start shooting again......

Headed to bed so I can start on a clear and rested head.

BUYING FLASHES FOR THE FIRST TIME

2010-05-03T20:35:00.000-07:00

I see lots of people asking for advice on different photo forums on the subject of buying their first set of studio flashes or even flases for their cameras.

I had the same question running thru many decades ago . As I see these questions pop up on the various forums, I remember a conversation with reknown Santa Monica Photographer, Peter Gowland...around 1982.
I desparately wantred a set of studio flashes and I loved the work he showed in the many books he and his wife (Alice) had written. In one of the books I saw his phone number........I thought, this cannot be his private number, not published in a book for millions of people to see and use.......could it. A few days later, Friday nite or Saturday night I called the number....it is ringing and then a soft spoken man answered, Peter Gowland Residence............long Pause.......Hello.....finall I choked out this is Arthur Scott calling from Wichita Ks....Is this really Peter Gowland the photographer that writes books on Glamour Photography............He replied Yes it is, How may I help you.....so I had a list of questions written down for better explanation of some of his set ups and tips......then I hit the big question........What should I get for my first light set up. His answer was simple:
1- buy the most powerful flash you can afford
2- Buy at least 3 of them: 2 for front light and 1 for back light, make sure they are all the same brand & model; that way when setting up it won't matter where the lights go.
3- buy a black background and some theatrical gels to color the background
4- the cheapest good flash meter is the Wein 500......I bought the Wein 1000.
5-Would you like some of my posing guides?????? My question was HOW Much are they?? Well How many children do you have?? Me: 3............Mr. Gowland: I'll send you 5 Free........in the background you hear......FREEEEEEE!!!!!! PETER!!!!!!!! WHAT DO YOU MEAN FREE?? IT IS TAX TIME YOU CAN'T JUST GIVE THOSE AWAY!!!!
Mr. Gowland......Ah she'll get over it......I want to help out.....what is your address??

In 3 days I had a manilla envelope from him with 5 large posing guides.....actually they were his print catalogs and 90% of his work was nudes........he had a little note inside telling me to watch out for those Bible Thumpers we have here in the Mid west and don't get into trouble with his catalogs as they might view it as porn here LOL LOL LOL .
He finsihed by telling me if I should ever get to Santa Monica to stop by and to send him my very first portrait done when I got my lights and backdrop.

I did send him my first portrait of my son. He wrote back saying to do this and this and this and it woulod be great and all I needed was more room and more lights............

He was so very helpful, ihaven't got to meet him yet.....I hope I can before he is gone.

So that is pretty much the same advice i give to all that I see asking that question.....no matter how many times I see the question I answer it...............others say search the forum it has been answered over and over again.......like it is too strainious to type a little and help someone out......99%of all forum searches give you tons of threads filled with non pertinent info and then you have to wade thru those to find the one that has your answer.............

have a good night and great week

NEW BLOG ADDRESS - New Info

2010-05-01T15:01:00.000-07:00

IN THE VERY NEAR FUTURE THIS WHOLE BLOG WILL MOVE TO A NEW ADDRESS:
{ http://artscottfotografie.blogspot.com } ...THERE IS A BLANK PAGE AT THE NEW ADDRESS BUT I WANTED TO LET YOU KNOW OF THIS MOVE.
Please copy and bookmark the new address....it will go into effect on Monday May 10, 2010

Thank You

New Info: This will not happen until around the 18-20th of May.....I am leaving to go shoot in Lexington Ky and won't be able to get to this until then.....crazy shoot......City Scenes and was told by Art Director of the Publishing company......NO HORSES or HORSE RACING....they have waaaay to many of those.....so it will be Lexington and people shooting.....hope to be back around the 17th.

My Friend: Awais Yaqub - Awais Yaqub Photogrphic

2010-04-30T16:56:00.000-07:00

To my right in the setion titled: Some of My favorite Places is a new Link. It takes you to a new rising star of fame and fortune in Pakistan.......AWAIS YAQUB PHOTOGRAPHIC .........Awais is a member of the forum Digital Grin.......I have never met Awais in person but his photography is fantastic and his words are always generous, helpful and kind......and we both have beards....so he has gotta be alright.........

Check out his site and photo offerings and sign his GUEST BOOK.......we all like to know who is looking at our ART...................................

NEW BLOG ADDRESS

2010-04-30T11:07:00.000-07:00

TIME to BOOK SETTINGS for SENIOR 2011 PORTRAITS

2010-04-30T09:49:00.000-07:00

It is time to start booking your 2011 Senior Portraits........don't wait or all time slots will be gone.
We have a payment plans to fit almost every budget.
That right we have LAY AWAY...........Pay small retainer (non refundable) to hold date and have the balance paid off by Setting Date......no finance charges.......

Call 316-250-8761 for appointment.
Yes this is a local Wichita Cell phone number :-}

Or email for more information: INFO@artscottfotografie.com

SUPER PORTAIT SPECIAL for EASTER

2010-03-29T05:43:00.000-07:00

I was asked to do a EASTER SPECIAL SHOOT at the VICTORY TEMPLE COGIC AT 1156 N OLIVER WICHITA KS...........SO I came up with 5 packages I could do for $25 (cash only) using 1 backdrop.
Then it was okayed for me to open this up to the public.........

APPOINTMENTS ARE AVAILABLE FOR MONDAY AND TUESDAY 10am to 6pm....

CALL TODAY FOR APPOINTMENT.
316-250-8761

Superintendent Pastor and First Lady Banks

Monica Dean Family

Juan, Adrienne, Juanita & Lupe

Lessons Learned and Old Fears Substantiated

2010-03-02T13:40:00.000-08:00

Well the fellow Dgrinner that I bought the 70-200 VR from refuses any type of return and seems to want me to actually sue him.......even though he will have to travel from Rockfod Il to Kansas for a court date.............I do not understand the way some peoples minds work......they sell you something that is supposed to be like new never been banged or anything and when you discover the damage that was hidden by a screw on filter they started accusing you of harassing them and all of a sudden the agreement about fixing any thing wrong with the item sold is out...."I am not going to do anything for you..............!!!"......" stop emailing me"!! As if the agreement never was in place and getting mad over being found to have lied I understand but the normal person hangs their head and and will make it right.......but not this guy he is determined to not do the right thing.

You may be wondering why the title for this blog........Let's start with the OLD FEARS......never buy off a forum there is no protection.......LESSONS LEARNED.......NEVER BUY OFF ANY FORUMS THEY ARE NOT PROTECTED.......at least on EBAY you have Ebay you can file a complaint with and then Paypal......on ebay you cannot pay as a gift......I have used the gifting system to save a seller fro mthe commission charges when they give me a very good deal.....as I did this seller.......the problem lies in this you cannot get a refund on a gift......my problem with this, no one elses just mine........

So never buy off a forum unless you know the person very well or can check them out with other members first.....SECONDLY.......NEVER EVER GIFT ANY MONEY.....IF THE SELLER WON'T TAKE STANDARD CREDIT CARD OR ECHECKS THRU PAYPAL DON'T TRUST THEM...............

Forum purchase - Nikon 70-200f2.8

2010-02-18T09:33:00.000-08:00

I am a member of a great online community called DGRIN....and as with most forums they have a buy/sell forum called the FLEA MARKET.......I normally do not buy or sell a lot on there and I am critized for being an EBAYER but in my own defense 99% of all of my purchases on ebay I can get a square trade warranty....but i have bought off the forums when an item is near new nd still under the original warranty as long as seller agrees to send the item in for repair if needed since mfg'ers warranties are not transferable.........

Well I made a deal for a Nikon 70-200 f2.8 VR.....a lens that is less than 2 yrs old and I sent the Fellow Dgrinner $1230........9 days ago paid extra for overnight shipping.....have yet to receive the lens........I have called him at work and I called him at home............Rockford Il is only a 12 hr drive from wichita..loks like I may be in for a road trip to collect.

I am an EXTREMELY MAD new user of Dell Products: Studio 17 Laptop

2010-02-16T13:06:00.000-08:00

I am an EXTREMELY MAD new user of Dell Products: Studio 17 Laptop!!!!!!!!!

Why am I EXTREMELY MAD....because prior to purchasing my studio 17, I called sustomer service and explained I was making a PRE-Sales call.....fact finding mission....I do this even with local retailers prior to spending any amount of money over $5.............I asked point blank if the studio 17 (win 7 Uliti 64) I was considering would: 1- run my Adobe, roxio and other 32 bit software...that was currently running on my 32 bit XP 8 month old custome built machine.

2- would I be able to run my older printers and scanners that are currently operating on my custome built 32 bit system

3- will win XP mode and Virtual PC run on this laptop......

I was told YES to all questions.........................so I ordered and I got a nice looking machine...that I put thru some paces of getting all of my internet browsing info synced to the laptop and then downloaded a special effect sound and burned a CD.....that would not play in anything but the laptop (not happy).....then I tried to play a CD and it simply skipped for the first 30 seconds...tried this out on 30 other cd's....went to the store and bought 2 new disks....not a smudge on them..they skipped......called Dell tech support.....while they had re-mote control of the laptop I had the tech check an express card CF card reader/writer that was not being recognized......the determination was that the laptop needed to be returned and repaired.....ok........it was gone for about 4 days....not bad......get it back....disks still skip...not as bad mind you but they skip.......then I went and downloaded the Win 7 XP MODE AND VIRTUAL PC apps and the HAVTOOL to check everything out and guess what....my processor ias not capable of virtualization.......let me see...Question 3.....will XP MODE AND VIRTUAL PC RUN ON THIS COMPUTER...the customer service agaen told me it would........

Is it common for Dell to tell prospective customers what they want to hear rather than the truth........I would have probably bewen more than willing to upgrade the processor at that time.....now I am just EXTREMELY MAD and just migjht be seeking a return and refund, unless a Dell rep want to email me and upgrade the processor for free......as this is costing me money as I cannot process photos with out the ability to run my version of photoshop..........and the KICKER yesterday was I tried to install a second hard drive.......I found all of the screws to the access panel were damaged.....yes that is correct the phillips head screw heads were stripped.....who ever removed the access panel at Dell used the wrong phillips bit or used an air driver and"drilled out the screw heads......ON TOP OF THAT THEY LOCK TITED THE SCREWS IN.....this is a customer accessable access panel for adding Harddrives or ram or a TV chip......I had to take it to a local computer tech company and have the screws removed......then I found out that the Hard drive carriage and adapter were gone........I ahd taken the laptop to the same local tech to verify that I could install the harddrive and all was good last week on that problem.........

yes I am ESTREMELY MAD and have every right to be and I have every right to let others know of my situation!!!!!!!!

now to call dell and see what they are going to do about this!!!!

NON photographic....please bear with me.

2010-01-20T21:11:00.000-08:00

back in about 1972 I was stuck in the hills of Arkansas Newton County....when I moved thre in '68 there were still signs on the county lines stating "N" do not let the sun set on you in this county......I was raised with no real knowledge of color and the "N" word was just as apt to be used for a white person as anyone else......after a few weeks in this strange place I now called home....I had a huge realization...there were no indians, no blacks and no chinese (at the time my knowledge of asian was the chinese that ran resturants.......and I asked some school mates why there everyone was white at school and was given a lesson that never set well with me...as it ended up being the science teacher/superintendent that explained that no one but whites were welcome in the county.......back to 1972....I had the pleasure to bein a Readers Theater Play and I had to give the "I had a Dream" speech to an all white, backward, racist crowd.....somehow the state police found out about the play and were lining the back wall of our school auditorium......it was scary.....of course I carried a new set of names from that night on........as I had found tapes of the speech to listen to and practice his accent and I almost sounded like Dr. King when I gave that speech.